Warm-up matches discussion

Bangladesh celebrate an early wicket during their memorable win

England's first World Cup opponents on March 16, New Zealand, crashed to a two-wicket defeat to lowly Bangladesh in their first tournament warm-up.

The Kiwis, on the back of a 3-0 home thrashing of Australia, won the toss but lost four of their first five batsmen for scores of 4, 0, 11 and 3.

Mashrafe Mortaza took 4-44 before Jacob Oram made light of a recently broken finger to hit 88 in a total of 224.

Mortaza then saw his team home with successive sixes off James Franklin.

Bangladesh did not even require the last over as they celebrated their first win of any description against New Zealand.

At one stage, it appeared the economy and wickets of Daniel Vettori (3-30) and Oram's runs would prove just enough to help the Kiwis home.

Instead, Mortaza and co proved too much for a team who looked to be coming into the tournament in decent form.

Oram's heroics with the bat were sadly not matched by his colleagues, with Brendon McCullum (46 not out) the only other Kiwi to offer anything substantial with the bat.

Oram came in at 34-4 and was eighth out 37 overs later with the score on 218 - having hit five fours and a six from 107 balls.

He shared a stand of 105 in only 19 overs with McCullum, before the wicketkeeper-batsman was run out.

The pace of Mortaza had done the damage at the top of the Kiwi order.

He shifted opener Lou Vincent with the third delivery of the match and also bagged frontline batsmen Ross Taylor and Peter Fulton.

Left-arm orthodox spinner Abdur Razzak was another to have a fine match for the Tigers, for once living up to their nickname.

He took 4-26 off 10 overs, and it was fitting that he was at the crease too when his ninth-wicket partner struck the winning blows.

Bangladesh always looked in with a chance of a successful chase when 17-year-old opener Tamim Iqbal - with just four one-day internationals behind him - hit Franklin out of the new-ball attack.

The entry into the attack of Vettori turned a 73-0 scoreline into 79-2, but Bangladesh did not panic.

Mohammad Ashraful kept a small but attentive crowd guessing well into the final straight, despite losing Mushfiqur Rahim to an aerial drive at Shane Bond.