Dunedin, Mar 20 (AP) New Zealand made the best of favorable conditions after winning the toss and bowling, restricting Bangladesh to 131 in 41.5 overs Saturday in the first one-day cricket international.

From the first ball of match from Trent Boult which swung late, past the searching edge of the bat of Bangladesh captain Tamim Iqbal, it was clear the tourists were in for a challenging day.

While the swing was short-lived, the pitch at the University Oval was slow and holding which made scoring difficult.

New Zealand added to the challenge by bowling tight lines and lengths. They gave the Bangladesh batsmen little width for shots square of the wicket and, by bowling just short of a length, made hitting the ball down the ground difficult.

The sticky nature of the pitch led to a number of catches in front of the wicket.

Mahmudullah was Bangladesh's top-scorer with 27 from 54 balls. Mushfiqur Rahim made 23 from 49 deliveries and Liton Das 19 from 36 but none of the Bangladesh batsmen got going.

After being beaten first up, Tamim hit the next ball from Boult for six but that wasn't a sign of things to come. He was trapped lbw by Boult soon after for 13 in the fifth over and, when Soumya Sarkar (0) fell three balls later, Bangladesh was already in trouble at 19-2.

The slow pace of scoring continued. The tourists were 33-2 after 10 overs, 46-3 after 15 and their 50 came up in the 16th over.

Mushfiqur fell in the 22nd over, caught by Martin Guptill at gully off Jimmy Neesham. Neesham also had a hand, literally, in dismissing Mohammad Mithun, deflecting Mahmudullah's straight drive onto the stumps at the non-striker's end when Mithun was backing up too far.

Mahedi Hasan's first scoring shot in one-day internationals was a huge six over extra cover off Santner which immediately took him past his partner, Mahmudullah, who at that stage had made 5 from 25 balls.

He looked to accelerate the scoring but had made only 14 when he was caught by Henry Nicholls, running back at mid-on, off Santner.

Mahmudullah was caught by Santner, leaping up at mid-wicket, off Henry and the Bangladesh innings was almost over at 125-8. The last two wickets followed quickly, both claimed by Boult who finished with 4-27. (AP)

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)