New Zealand defeated Bangladesh by two wickets with four balls to spare on the opening day of the ICC Under-19 World Cup at the Bangabandhu National Stadium in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on Sunday.
New Zealand all-rounder Sam McKay (40 not out) kept his cool to hit the winning runs off the second ball of the final over in front of a 15,000 crowd.
McKay's decisive innings earned him the Man of the Match award> He was nominated by ICC Match Referee Chris Broad.
"I have never played in front of a crowd of more than about 500 before, so this was very exciting," said McKay.
"It was a new experience for me; I knew I had to stay calm as we had plenty of overs to play with and I found it a lot of fun."
It was McKay's sixth-wicket partnership with Anton Devcich (36) that turned the match decisively in New Zealand's favour after they had stuttered to 118 for 6 in pursuit of 203 for victory.
Bangladesh were put in to bat and progressed steadily to 170 for 5 with opener Nafees Iqbal leading the way with 67 runs off 92 balls. With 15 overs to go the home side looked set to post a big target but fast bowlers Te Ahu Davis and Craig Smith returned to the New Zealand attack to skittle out the five remaining wickets for only 32 runs.
Brief Scores:
Bangladesh Under-19: 202 all out in 46.3 overs (Nafis Iqbal 67, Ashiqur Rahman 42, C Smith 4-43, T Davis 3-34).
New Zealand Under-19: 204 for 8 in 49.2 overs (S McKay 40*, P Carey 36, A Devcich 36, S Hossain 2-28, E Haque jnr 2-36).