New Delhi: New Zealand bounced back from a shaky start to beat Bangladesh by six wickets in a rain-hit third T20 on Saturday and level the three-match series 1-1. The second match was called off earlier after Bangladesh won the opener by six wickets.Chasing a revised target of 103 in 15 overs, New Zealand were in serious trouble early at 25-3 after Bangladesh pacer Shoriful Islam sliced through the top order. Stand-in captain Nick Kelly also went down soon after, leaving the home side struggling at 33-4.But Bevon Jacobs turned the game around by scoring a brilliant unbeaten 62 off just 31 balls. His knock included five fours and three sixes as he led New Zealand to 104-4 in 11.4 overs.Bangladesh captain Liton Das continued the attack with Sureful, but Jacobs responded strongly and smashed him for successive boundaries to change the momentum. Jacobs reached his fifty off 29 balls and finished the match in style with a boundary and a six. Shoriful still finished with impressive numbers of 3-19.
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Bangladesh collapses after rain stops
Earlier, Bangladesh were asked to bat first but their innings never settled. They had already slipped to 50-3 in 6.4 overs before rain stopped play for more than two hours, reducing the contest to 15 overs per side.
After the restart, Bangladesh tried to attack every delivery, but the plan backfired badly. They lost their last seven wickets for just 39 runs in 35 balls and were bowled out for 102 in 14.2 overs.Touhid Hridoy top-scored with 33, while Liton Das scored 26 and Saif Hasan added 16. No other batsman was able to reach double figures.Josh Clarkson starred with the ball for New Zealand, taking a career-best 3-9 in two overs. Ben Sears and Nathan Smith took two wickets each, while Ish Sodhi took one wicket to become New Zealand’s leading T20I wicket-taker with 165 wickets, ahead of Tim Southee’s 164.
