Despite having no chance of qualification the final T20 against NZ was important in that I wanted to prove Bangladesh were more than able of competing with the big boys of International cricket. I won the toss and opted to bowl first on a wearing wicket, the bowling attack contained 3 spinners and I decided I was much more confident in my batting line up chasing rather than attempting to set a target.
My decision was quickly rewarded but not by the spinners. Syed Rasel produced one of the finest opening spells of the competition and picked up two quick wickets and could've easily had a few more. He gave practically nothing away and as a result his opening partner Kabir benefited with a wicket as NZ attempted to score from the other end.
Before they'd had time to figure out what had hit them NZ were 29/3.
The introduction of the spinners didn't quite go to plan, Shakib was suberp as he has been all tournament really but Hossain and Razzaq couldn't conceed runs quick enough. For every moment of brilliance from Shakib, there were two rank half trackers from the other two tweakers. Ross Taylor played a steady innings whilst Shakib picked away at the rest of the NZ line up.
At the end of the innings Bangladesh but can't help but feel that they've let NZ off the hook after having them reeling at 49/5.
The Bangladesh innings started rapidly with Tamim continuing his fine form and slaughtering Oram to all parts of the ground in his opening overs, though things began to turn around quickly when O'Brien produced a fine spell to rout the Bangladesh top order. After no less than 4 quick wickets Islam joined Tamim at the crease and the pair proceeded to add 89 for the 5th wicket, Islam then departed shortly after Tamim bringing up his 50. Vetorri ousted Hasan soon after and it was left to Iqbal to see Bangladesh over the line, which he accomplished with a brilliant 72*
Up next a Test series against India, should be fun