New Delhi: New Zealand bounced back from a shaky start to beat Bangladesh by six wickets in the rain-affected third T20I on Saturday to level the three-match series 1-1. The second match ended earlier after Bangladesh won the opener by six wickets.Chasing a revised target of 103 from 15 overs, New Zealand found themselves in dire straits at 25-3 early as Bangladesh pacer Sharaful Islam tore through the top order. Stand-in captain Nick Kelly also fell soon after, leaving the hosts in trouble at 33-4.But Bevan Jacobs turned the game around with a brilliant unbeaten 62 off just 31 balls. His innings included five fours and three sixes as he took New Zealand to 104-4 in 11.4 overs.Bangladesh skipper Liton Das continued to attack with Shurifel, but Jacobs responded aggressively and smashed him for back-to-back boundaries to change the momentum. Jacobs completed his fifty in 29 balls and finished the match with a boundary and a six. Shoriful still finished with impressive figures of 3-19.
After a rain break, Bangladesh broke.
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 halted play for over two hours, reducing the contest to 15 overs per side.After the restart, Bangladesh tried to attack every delivery, but the plan failed miserably. He lost his last seven wickets for just 39 runs off 35 balls and was bowled out for 102 runs in 14.2 overs.Toheed Hardoy scored 33 runs, Latin Das scored 26 runs and Saif Hasan scored 16 runs. No other batsman could reach double figures.Josh Clarkson starred with the ball for New Zealand, taking a career-best 3-9 from two overs. Ben Sears and Nathan Smith took two wickets each, while Ash Sodhi took one to become New Zealand’s highest T20I wicket-taker with 165 wickets, surpassing Tim Southee’s 164.
