Dunedin, March 20 Trent Boult's four-wicket haul helped New Zealand score a convincing eight-wicket win over Bangladesh in the first One-day International at the University Oval ground here on Saturday.
The left-arm pace bowler took the first two Bangladesh wickets early, including opposition captain Tamim Iqbal, and then followed it up with two tailenders' wickets to skittle out New Zealand for 131 in 41.5 overs.
James Neesham took two for 27 while Mitchell Santner took two for 23 as only Mahmudullah (27) and Mushfiqur Rahim (23) could make get into 20s.
In response, Kiwis achieved the 132-run target in just 21.2 overs with Henry Nicholls making an unbeaten 49 and Martin Guptill scoring 38.
"The boys bowled nicely to keep them to a decent total and nice to chase it with only a couple of wickets down," said man of the match Boult.
Bangladesh skipper Tamim Iqbal lamented too many soft dismissals.
"There were too many soft dismissals. We take a lot of pride in our batting which didn't click. Hope we find out the mistakes and not repeat them next time. We had a few days of preparations. It is not new to us, we have been coming to New Zealand," said Iqbal.
The second of the three ODIs is on Tuesday.
Brief scores: Bangladesh 131 all out in 41.5 overs (T Boult 4/27) lost to New Zealand 132/2 in 21.2 overs (H Nicholls 49 not out)
( With inputs from IANS )
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