BAN VS NZ - 3rd T20I, New Zealand tour of Bangladesh, 2021

Third lowest total defended by New Zealand in T20Is and they should be a pleased bunch. Partnerships, strike-rotation, left-right combination.... all of these play such a huge role in conditions that are tricky to bat. New Zealand adapted well and are the deserving winners. Special mention to their pacers as well who did a great job in building the pressure through several dots at various stages of the chase. Time to refocus on some of the basics of the game for Bangladesh as we bid goodbye from the comm box. The next game is on Wednesday. Same place, same time. Do remember to join us for that. See you soon!!

Tom Latham, New Zealand skipper: A very good performance. We were able to build partnerships with the bat even though we lost wickets upfront, got to a par score and bowlers did a fantastic job. Blundell and Nicholls were brilliant in that partnership. That death phase can be a little tricky especially with the right-left combination. Just for the left-right combination (regarding the batting order and why he demoted himself). The way our bowlers were able to apply pressure and take wickets, it was outstanding. We knew it was gonna be tough here and for us it's no surprise (the conditions), still a little bit left in the tank and that's a positive sign for us.

Ajaz Patel, Player of the Match: You thrive on conditions like these and you take responsibility in these conditions and I thought all our bowlers bowled brilliantly and did a great job in getting wickets. Rachin bowled brilliantly and we had that communication going and our seamers well, this is not the easiest conditions to bowl and they did well. I had conversations with Dan (Vettori) earlier and he gave me a bit of clarity on what the conditions here are like.

Mahmudullah, Bangladesh skipper: Bowlers did a great job to restrict them. We started well with the bat but couldn't capitalize and lost wickets in a cluster, hopefully we will be back strong next game. Middle order has been batting well, the top order did a great job last game and today as well, we are missing out in building partnerships and need to work on that. Still 2 games to go and hopefully we can win the next game and seal the series.

19:22 Local Time, 13:22 GMT, 18:52 IST: Splendid bowling display from New Zealand and terrible batting show from the hosts. A classic case of what can happen when you take things for granted. The openers came out all guns blazing and offered a brisk start to the chase, going at 8 an over until the third over, but once Liton played that needless swipe across the line one thought it was just a one off dismissal and the others would learn to play sensibly. Wasn't to be. From 23/0 they went to 32/4 in the span of 4 overs. Mushfiqur looked completely out of touch and missed out on a few boundary balls which made things that much more difficult for the home side. New Zealand spinners were just too good. Gave nothing away and kept attacking the stumps to force false shots from the batters. The way Shakib approached his batting and got out would have left the Bangladeshi fans in complete shock. All in all, the surface had very little role to play in the sorry state of scorecard of the hosts. Presentations coming right up...

de Grandhomme to Mustafizur, out Caught by (sub)Bracewell!! Job done. A resounding victory for New Zealand, win by 52 runs to get off the mark in the series. Mustafizur heaves this slower ball high into the night sky and the fielder at long-on settles under the high ball. This is only New Zealand's second win in Bangladesh in the last decade and also first time no six was hit in a T20I game between two Test playing nations. Mustafizur c (sub)Bracewell b de Grandhomme 4(10)

de Grandhomme to Mustafizur, THATS OUT!! Caught!!

de Grandhomme to Mustafizur, 2 runs, throws the kitchen sink at a short and wide delivery and gets a thick outside edge that flies to the right of third man

de Grandhomme to Mustafizur, no run, slower length delivery drifting away outside off, Mustafizur looks for a late dab and misses

de Grandhomme to Mushfiqur, 1 run, slower length delivery on the stumps, Mushfiqur swivels and pulls it to the right of fine leg

Colin de Grandhomme, right-arm fast medium, comes into the attack

CDG to bowl the final over...

Jacob Duffy to Mushfiqur, 1 run, flicks the length delivery from outside off to the right of deep square

Jacob Duffy to Mushfiqur, no run, slower back of a length delivery wide of off, Mushfiqur slashes and misses

Jacob Duffy to Mustafizur, 1 run, full outside off, thumped to the left of sweeper cover

Jacob Duffy to Mustafizur, no run, follows the backing away Mustafizur and spills the slower ball well past the leg-stump, not sure what the batsman was trying to do there. Done for lack of pace....

Jacob Duffy to Mustafizur, no run, slower short ball wide of off, Mustafizur makes room and misses the cut/slash on the off-side

Jacob Duffy to Mustafizur, no run, makes room and biffs the full delivery straight to mid-on

Kuggeleijn to Mushfiqur, no run, slower ball yorker just outside off, Mushfiqur could only squeeze it as far as mid-on

Kuggeleijn to Mustafizur, 1 run, makes room and slaps the full delivery to the right of sweeper cover