Cricket365

Oram Hails Tough Triumph

Sunday 12th October 2008

Jacob Oram put on another stellar performance to help New Zealand to draw level in their one-day series against Bangladesh with a 75-run win in Mirpur.

But the talented all-rounder, who hit an unbeaten 75 and took two wickets and two catches, admitted it had been a difficult day of cricket for the tourists.

The Black Caps batting order once again threatened to crumble, struggling to 115 for seven at one point, with Syed Rasel taking the early wickets of Brendon McCullum, Jamie How and Jesse Ryder before Mashrafe Mortaza sent Scott Styris back to the pavilion without troubling the scorers.

Daniel Flynn, Ross Taylor and captain Daniel Vettori were all then dispatched and it was left to Oram to push the visitors beyond the 200 mark, which he did by smashing 25 runs off the final over by Abdul Razzak.

"It was another slow wicket, probably even a little slower than the wicket the other day. I thought the Bangladesh guys bowled really well on it and it was tough to get going," Oram said.

"They set good fields and with wickets falling we weren't going to take any risks so we basically had to get ourselves in and try and conserve wickets or time at the end to have a bit of a go," he told Sky Sports.

"To be honest that last over was great for us. It was lucky. I think if we'd got to 200 we would have been happy but to get 212 was icing on the cake."

Oram's fireworks at the end of the Black Caps' innings provided some spark when his team-mates took up with the ball with Kyle Mills and Tim Southee accounting for Tamim Iqbal, Zunaed Siddique and Mushfiqur Rahim early.

They then put the squeeze on the Bangladesh batsmen, who were always chasing the required run-rate.

Bangladesh captain Mohammad Ashraful conceded it had been the batting which had let his side down.

"Our bowlers and fielders did a very good job but we didn't bat well, especially in the first 20 overs where we scored just 50. That's the area where we lost the game I think."