Santner stars with bat and ball to level series against Bangladesh

Mitchell Santner led his New Zealand side to series parity in the third, rain-hit T20I against Bangladesh at the Bay Oval in Mount Maunganui. He finished with exceptional figures of 4 for 16 in 4 overs as Bangladesh folded for 110. New Zealand lost half their side but James Neesham (28 off 20) and Santner (18 off 20) took them to a score well ahead of par on DLS method when rain ruined play in the 15th over.

Tim Southee, Adam Milne and Ben Sears picked a wicket each inside the PowerPlay to keep Bangladesh’s boundary-filled start in check. Najmul Hossain Shanto picked three fours in as many overs but was one of the three to fall. Bangladesh still pushed to 45 runs at the end of six overs.

Once the quicks had given New Zealand a stable base via wickets, Santner and Ish Sodhi had the visitors in a spin. They bowled the next six overs in tandem, giving away just 23 runs while the captain picked two wickets. While Sodhi finished off wicketless (0 for 16) but having made a big dent in Bangladesh’s scoring, Santner reaped the rewards at the other end by picking two more in his final over. Sears had Bangladesh eight down for 87 before they even got to the last four death overs. Milne, one of the three New Zealand bowlers to pick two wickets in the game, wrapped the innings up on the first ball of the final over on 110.

Tim Seifert, Daryl Mitchell, Glenn Phillips and Mark Chapman fell for a run each, while opener Finn Allen kept the runs going at one end. When he fell in the ninth over, he had scored 38 of the 49 runs on the board. Bangladesh had picked five wickets – with two each for Mahedi Hasan and Shoriful Islam, and were set on pulling off a stunning heist.

After the fall of Allen’s wicket, New Zealand were at 49/5 – still 8 runs behind DLS method – with the threat of rain looming large. Neesham took on Shanto straightaway, hitting a six and four in a 14-run over to push his team ahead on DLS. Mustafizur Rahman bowled a tight over but Santner hit a boundary of Mahedi Hasan to put the pressure back on the bowling side. 16 runs came off the next two overs and they reached 95 for 5 in 14.4 overs when rain interrupted play. At this stage, the hosts were 17 runs ahead on DLS and were awarded victory based on that as no more action was possible.

Brief scores:
Bangladesh 110 in 19.2 overs (Najmul Hossain Shanto 19, Towhid Hridoy 16; Mitchell Santner 4-16, Tim Southee 2-25) beat Bangladesh 95/5 in 14.4 overs (Finn Allen 38, James Neesham 28; Mahedi Hasan 2-18, Shoriful Islam 2-17) by 17 runs (DLS Method)