Black Caps too good for Bangladesh

New Zealand opener Jamie How starred as the Black Caps eased to a convincing six-wicket victory over Bangladesh in the opening one-day international in Auckland.

Home captain Daniel Vettori won the toss and opted to field first, with his side going on to restrict the tourists to 201.

Mohammad Ashraful hit 70, sharing a 97-run third wicket partnership with Tamim Iqbal, but a middle-order collapse saw Bangladesh fall short of a competitive total at Eden Park as they were all out in 46.3 overs.

Playing their first ODI in New Zealand, the tourists looked to be in trouble early on with opener Junaid Siddique falling for 13 to Kyle Mills and Aftab Ahmed removed by Mark Gillespie for eight to leave them floundering at 39 for two.

Ashraful and Iqbal held the Bangladesh innings together, adding nearly 100 runs for the third wicket before Iqbal was dismissed by Jacob Oram for 50, lofting a simple catch to Gillespie at deep backward-point.

Bangladesh captain Ashraful hit 10 boundaries and a six but, with the score at 150, he was next to go when he pulled a delivery by Oram to deep mid-wicket where Peter Fulton took the catch.

The dismissal sparked a middle-order collapse with four Bangladesh wickets going for only three runs.

Shakib Al Hasan was bowled by Gillespie for six, Mushfiqur Rahim followed three balls later when he edged Gillespie to wicketkeeper Brendon McCullum for a duck and Mehrab Hossain jnr went for three when he was caught at backward-point by How off the bowling of Oram.

Mills raised his tally of wickets for the innings to three by removing Farhad Reza for four and Mashrafe Mortaza for 17.

The Bangladesh tail wagged briefly with Abdur Razzaq hitting 22 in a final-wicket partnership of 24, but Shahadat Hossain was run out for three to leave the hosts chasing a modest target.