ICC World Cup: Ton-up Guptill leads NZ to thrilling win against Bangladesh

HamiltonOpener Martin Guptill smashed a brisk century before New Zealand huffed and puffed to a thrilling threewicket win over Bangladesh to sign off their league engagements unbeaten in pool A of the ICC cricket World Cup here todayChasing a competitive 289 to win New Zealand rode on a 131run thirdwicket partnership between Guptill 105 and Ross Taylor 56 to stay atop pool A with 12 points followed by Sri Lanka 8 Australia 7 and Bangladesh 7Martin Guptill Pic AFPBangladesh who had reached the quarterfinals for the first time after beating England last Monday are now most likely to take on defending champions India in the last eight stage after finishing fourth However a final position of the pool will only be known after the AustraliaScotland match at Hobart tomorrow If the minnows can stun the fourtime champions by a big margin the position of the teams may changeEarlier Mahmudullah cracked his second successive century a careerbest unbeaten 128 to power Bangladesh to a competitive 288 for seven Defending the total Bangladesh started off well dismissing dangerous opener and host captain Brendon McCullum 8 and first down batsman Kane Williamson 1 cheaply to reduce the Kiwis to 332 inside five oversBut Guptill and Taylor added 131 runs to not only script a recovery but also lay the foundation for a successful chase Guptills 100ball innings was laced with 11 hits to the fence and two sixes while Taylor blasted five boundaries in his 97ball stay at Seddon park However after Guptill was holed out by Rubel Hossain off Shakib Al Hasans bowling in the 31st over at 1643 New Zealand suffered a minicollapse to give Bangladesh a faint hope of a turnaroundNasir Hossain dismissed Taylor while Rubel sent back Grant Elliott 39 in quick succession and then Shakib who picked up four wickets got rid off Luke Ronchi to further reduce the hosts to 2476 in 444 overs However No 8 batsman Daniel vettori 16 smashed a six and a four in his 10ball innings to ensure that New Zealand romp home reaching 2907 with seven balls to spare Earlier Bangladesh rode on a brilliant innings by Mahmudullah who starred in two crucial partnerships with Soumya Sarkar 51 and Sabbir Rahman 40 for the third andsixth wicket respectively after Kiwi skipper Brendon McCullum won the toss and elected to fieldMahmudullah who had become the first Bangladesh batsman to score a World Cup century during his 103run innings against England on Monday shared 90 runs with Soumya before adding another 78 with Sabbir today The 29yearold cracked 12 boundaries and three sixes in his 123ball unconquered innings at Seddon Park Soumya had seven boundaries to show in his 58ball stay while Shabbir blasted five fours and two sixes in his 23ball inningsFor New Zealand Corey Anderson 243 Trent Boult 256 and Grant Elliott 227 scalped two wickets each while Daniel vettori claimed one Bangladesh lost both their openers inside 10 overs with the score reading 27 for two but Mahmudullah and Soumya stemmed the rot with a 90 run partnership as the Asian nations crossed the 100markSoumya threw his wicket just after amassing his fifty when he caught by Anderson at longon off Vettori Shakib Al Hasan 23 and Mahmudullah then brought up the 150 before Anderson got rid of the Bangladeshi allrounder as they slipped 1514 in 34 oversMushfiqur Rahim 15 too had a brief stay in the middle and after he was dismissed by Anderson it was Sabbir who played the perfect cameo to raise the tempo after the 40th over Sabbir and Mahmudullah ensured Bangladesh accumulated 108 runs in the last 10 overs as they took the attack to the opposition adding 78 off 48 balls to take their team across the 250mark