||CF Correspondent||  

Bangladesh received a reality check ahead of the upcoming three-match ODI series against New Zealand as they were defeated by two wickets in the only practice game at Bert Sutcliffe Oval, Lincoln on Sunday.

Though Mushfiqur Rahim, Mahmudullah and Sabbir Rahman were among runs that helped the tourist recover from the early hiccups to post 247 runs on the board it was never enough as the New Zealand XI reached 251-8 with 11 balls to spare.

The Tigers will be playing the first ODI against New Zealand on February 13 and ahead of the ODI series, a practice game was arranged so that the players could get acclimatized to the conditions but the bouncy wicket looked too hot for Tigers to handle.

Sent in to bat first, Bangladesh were in early trouble losing Mominul Haque, Liton Das, Soumya Sarkar and Mohammad Mithun inside eight overs. 

The extra bounce of New Zealand surfaces looked to have gone into the head as Mominul Haque (6) top-edged a delivery trying to save his face while Soumya Sarkar (1) fell trying to smack it through the off side on-the-up against a good length delivery that had nothing apart from bouncing a bit more than his expectation.

Opener Liton Kumar Das and number four Mohammad Mithun perished in similar fashion behind the wicket trying to slash a swinging delivery without taking their foot behind the balls offered by Ian Ian pace bowler Ian McPeake and it left Tigers struggling at 31 4.

Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah helped then resurrect their innings as they added 108-run fer the fifth-wicket stand and give them some kind of solidity before the partnership was broken by left-arm pace bowler Sean Solia as Rahim tried to slash a delivery and ending up top edging it to be caught at third-man making 62 runs from 61 balls.

 After Mushfiqur’s departure, Mahmudullah (72 from 88 balls) soon followed him and it was Sabbir Rahman (40 off 41) that helped them cross the 200 runs mark while young Nayeem Hasan's (unbeaten 17runs ) in the end, saw Bangladesh post 247 all out.

Mc Peake was the wrecker in chief for New Zealand XI with four wickets. New Zealand XI started their chase solidly as Raval (52) and Andrew Fletcher notched up a 114-run opening partnership to give them a solid platform before the former departed when Nayeem got the first breakthrough for the tourist.

Fletcher, who made 92 runs from 112 balls, guided the home team to victory and it looked he was all set to reach the three digit mark but left-arm pace bowler Mustafizur ended his journey by picking him plumb in front.

The spinners got a few wickets as Mahmudullah and Mehedi Miraz bagged two each. Mustafizur grabbed two and made New Zealand XI sweat on victory but they eventually got over the ropes with two wickets and 11. The first ODI will kick off on February 13 in Napier.

Brief Score

Bangladesh: 247/10  (46.1 overs)