New Zealand defeated Bangladesh convincingly by six wickets in their opening league match in the ongoing World Cup Cricket tournament at Chelmsford on May 17.

Batting first, Bangladesh virtually collapsed in front of the Kiwi bowling, especially the pace attack.

The new entrants to the World Cup offered a very modest victory target of 117 runs to the New Zealanders.

Strangely, the Kiwi batsmen went about collecting this small score in an extraordinarily patient fashion and did the job in 33 overs. Of course, the Bangladeshi bowling and fielding were inspired.

Since only three of the six teams in the group will go to the super league, it is doubtful if New Zealand did the right thing by batting so slowly. After all, if two teams have the same number of points, batting average will come into play.

Bangladesh gave a good account of itself in terms of grit and determination. Its match with Scotland should be interesting. The vociferous Bangladeshi fans were in the stadium in large numbers and cheered every effort of their national side.

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