Mahmudullah hits 49 but Sodhi steals the show to beat Bangladesh
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New Zealand beat Bangladesh by 86 runs, thanks to Ish Sodhi's career best bowling at the Sher e Bangla National Cricket Stadium, Mirpur.
New Zealand have broken their Bangladesh rut, first ODI win since 2008 and Sodhi played a big part in the victory.
It was his day with the bat and ball. He added crucial runs towards the end of New Zealand's innings and then spun a web around the Bangladesh batters. Sodhi finished with career-best ODI figures six for 39 runs.
Tamim Iqbal and Mahmudullah Riyad, both veteran returnees, scored top 44 and 49 runs, respectively for Bangladesh, while they were chasing 255 runs.
Litton Das showed 'spirit of the game' earlier in the New Zealand innings but again failed to impress with the bat as Kyle Jameison removed for only 6.
With Tanzid Hasan Tamim also bringing up the boundaries at ease with senior Tamim, Bangladesh appeared to be clear favourite.
But Sodhi sparked the collapse as Bangladesh was reduced to 92-5 from 60-1 in just eight overs. He started with the wicket of Tanzid (16) and then took the crucial wicket of Tamim, who threw his wicket, trying to sweep against a googly.
Sodhi also removed Soumya Sarkar, who played his first match after two years, for duck and got the better of inform Towhid Hridoy for 4.
Tamim's 58-ball 44 saw him knock seven boundaries before gloving one to the wicketkeeper while attempting to sweep Sodhi.
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Mahmudullah and Mahedi Hasan resisted, sharing 42-run before Sodhi knocked out the latter for his maiden five-for.a
Mahmudullah's departure in the 36th over effectively ended Bangladesh's chances in the second match.
Mahmudullah was dismissed for making a pointless delivery. Cole McConchie's short ball that tuned down the leg side made Mahmudullah reach for it from afar. He could've shot it over the fielder at short-fine leg or perhaps for a six, but all he did was offer Finn Allen catching practice.
His 76-ball 49-run knock saw him just one run away from reaching 5,000 ODI runs and also helped to catch eyes of the selectors for World Cup.
Earlier, Khaled Ahmed and Mahedi Hasan shared six-wicket together while Sodhi capitalized on his second chance surviving a 'Mankad' to score crucial 35 runs to help the side cross the 250-run mark against the Tigers posting 254 in 49.2 overs.
During the 46th over of the match, Ish Sodhi narrowly avoided getting dismissed via a mankad by Hasan Mahmud as he was run out at the non-striker's end.
However, after discussing with the umpire, the captain Litton called Sodhi back to the crease, giving him a second chance to continue his innings. Sodhi was on 17 runs at the time.
Mustafizur Rahman and debutant Khaled made a joint attack to clink down New Zealand’s top-order to slump the visitors to 36-3 in the first powerplay.
Mustafizur removed Will Young (0) in his second over and also scalped the prize wicket of Finn Allen (12) after a couple of overs. Chad Bowes tried to build up but failed as Khaled claimed his maiden ODI wicket.
Henry Nicholls and Tom Blundell added a 95-run partnership for the fourth wicket that steadied their innings until Khaled gave the breakthrough by dismissing Nicholls for 49 runs falling short of just one run to hit half-century.
Tom led from the front and scored his third ODI fifty, helping his team pass the 150-run mark. He top-scored with 66-ball 68 aided by six fours and solitary six.
Hasan Mahmud castled Blundell as he got the off stump knocked over with a yorker after Mahedi Hasan trapped Rachin Ravindra into an LBW.
Spinners did the rest as Mahedi grabbed two more wickets and Nasum claimed a crucial one of Cole McConchie (20) while Mahedi returned Kyle Jamieson (20) when the batter attempted to slog instead got a top edge, resulting in a return catch to the bowler.
The last game of the series will be played on 26th.
![Hamza Choudhury [L] and Shakib Al Hasan](https://cricfrenzy.com/public/storage/images/3-2025/123T1f2d6gd9Raae3098b7a5.jpg)
