Conway, Sodhi star in crushing New Zealand win
Devon Conway smashed an unbeaten 92 off 52 balls and Will Young struck a half-century on debut before Ish Sodhi ran through Bangladesh's middle order to give New Zealand a 66-run win in the first T20I in Hamilton.
Continuing his purple patch, Conway struck 11 fours and three sixes as Young and he added 103 in 60 balls for the third wicket to propel New Zealand to 210 for 3. Bangladesh started their chase briskly but were soon reduced to 59 for 6 as Sodhi picked up 4 for 28. A 63-run stand between Afif Hossain and Mohammad Saifuddin for the seventh wicket only reduced the margin of the defeat.
Debuts to remember, debuts to forget
Finn Allen had topped the batting charts in Super Smash 2020-21, scoring 512 runs at an average of 56.88 and strike rate of 193.93. A day after his side Wellington won the tournament, he was called as a standby in New Zealand's T20I squad. Soon after, the Royal Challengers Bangalore picked him as a replacement player for IPL 2021. Then he got a gig with Lancashire for the T20 Blast. Now he was making his T20I debut.
Bowling to him was another debutant: left-arm spinner Nasum Ahmed. Unlike Allen, he had moderate returns of 12 wickets from 27 T20s before this game. Opening the ball, Ahmed started with four dots to Guptill before miscued single brought Allen on strike. And voila, Nasum bowled Allen first ball as the ball skidded through bat and bat to hit the top of the leg stump. Ahmed had a wicket in his first over, Allen a first-ball duck. Nasum later dismissed Matin Guptill, caught at long-off for 27-ball 35, to finish with figures of 2 for 30.
The other two debutants in the match had contrasting fortunes as well. Coming in at 53 for 2 in the seventh over, Young looked in no trouble against any bowler. Exhibiting a free flow of the arms, he hit two four and four sixes and brought up his fifty off just 28 balls as Conway and he took the game away from Bangladesh.
Left-arm seamer Shoriful Islam, one of Bangladesh's stars at their 2020 U-19 World Cup win, had a day to forget. Guptill flicked his first ball in international cricket for four before Conway hit two more boundaries in the same over. He ended with 4-0-50-0, the worst figures for a Bangladesh bowler on debut.
No stopping for Conway
Before coming into this game, Conway had five scores of 50-plus in 12 international innings. There was no stopping for him once again as he showed his full range. Apart from playing proper cricketing shots, Conway didn't hesitate to charge down against seamers or reverse-sweep spinners.
In the 15th over, Conway slog-swept Nasum towards deep-backward square leg, where Shoriful caught the ball right at the boundary. The fielder was confident his foot wasn't touching the boundary line but the third umpire couldn't spot any gap between his foot and the boundary skirting and ruled it a six. That took Conway to his fifty, off 37 deliveries.
The two shots that stood out came in the final two overs. Saifuddin went full and wide in the 19th over. Conway went down on one knee and opened the face of the bat to launch it over point for six. Then in the final over, he reverse-scooped Mustafizur Rahman over short third man, with the ball almost carrying all the way. In all, he scored 47 runs behind the stumps.
Source: ESPNcricinfo
