When Bangladesh stunned Kiwis

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, March 7, 2007
New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming,who came here celebrating a whitewash of world champions Australia, admitted theBlack Caps had been brought down to earth by Bangladesh.
The Asian minnowspulled off the first shock of the World Cup by beating the Kiwis by two wicketsin a World Cup warm-up on Tuesday leaving Fleming to carry out an immediateinquest on what went wrong for his highly-touted team.
"It was a poorperformance," said Fleming who had a miserable day with the bat failing to getof the mark. "Nothing went right. We batted poorly at the beginning (the Kiwiswere 34-4 at one stage) and did not assess conditions that well. We knew it wasgoing to be tricky at the start and we fell flat on our faces. "Then we bowledtentatively at the start. We kept clinging on in the field, but we just couldn'tshake them. It was a great performance from them, and it gives us some problemsgoing forward."
For Bangladesh, so often the whipping boys of internationalcricket since being granted Test status, it was a morale-boosting win ahead oftheir first round matches where they will face India, Sri Lanka and Bermuda. "It was a very good win and naturally we are pleased," said skipper HabibulBashar. "We are moving in the right direction." Pace bowler Mashrafe Mortazaproved to be the hero with bat and ball. After taking 4-44 to limit the BlackCaps to 226 all out, he then smashed two successive sixes off the hapless JamesFranklin to secure victory in the 49th over of an enthralling contest.
NewZealand came into the tournament as many peoples' dark horses for the titlehaving swept world champions Australia 3-0 in a recent home series. But theynever managed to get to grips with either the clever pace of Mortaza or theleft-arm spin of Abdur Razzak. Off-spinner Daniel Vettori took three wicketsfor the Kiwis as he tried to put a brake on the scoring but Mortaza'sbig-hitting was to have the final say as Bangladesh celebrated their first everwin over New Zealand.
Earlier, New Zealand all-rounder Jacob Oram, who cameinto the World Cup nursing a broken ring finger on his left hand, batted throughthe pain barrier. Oram top-scored with 88 off 107 balls with Brendon McCullumhitting a quickfire 46 off 48 balls. Bangladesh were indebted to the pace-spinattack of Mortaza and Razzak who shared eight wickets between them. Fast-mediumMortaza, who learned his trade under the watchful gaze of West Indies legendAndy Roberts, took 4-44 while Razzak's flighted, left-arm spin earned himfigures of 4-26.
Fleming admitted he was stunned by Bangladesh's work in thefield. "We were always there in the game. We fought back after a poor start andif we had reached 250, we would have won the game," said the skipper.
"But theyfielded brilliantly, they just kept coming at us. We just couldn't shake them." New Zealand will play another warm up here against Sri Lanka on Friday beforeswitching to St Lucia for their first round Group C matches against England,Kenya and Canada.Bangladesh will face Scotland in another warm-up here onThursday. They play their Group B games against India, Sri Lanka and Bermuda inTrinidad.