It all started with Bangladesh skipper Litton Das winning the toss and deciding to field first. The New Zealand openers Finn Allen and Will Young looked for a cautious start as Mustafizur Rahman and Tanzid Hasan Sakib tried to keep things tight and challenged the edges of the bat.
The rain showed up inside the first powerplay, enforcing the game to be a shortened one: 42 overs per side. Right after the break, the pair of Nasum Ahmed and Mustafizur Rahman operated in tandem from either end with the fizz taking a couple of wickets.
The left-arm spinner Nasum got enormous turn and bounce regularly and bowled consecutive maiden overs. This exerted the pressure and Mustafizur earned the dividends by luring the batters outside the off stump channel. This saw the fall of Allen and Chad Bowes as the scoreboard saw 16-2 at 8.2 overs.
Right after, Young and Henry Nicholls stepped up and worked hard to steady the ship. Although Young had less control initially, he gradually improved and got the runs. The duo eased off the pressure and glued a 97 runs stand for the third wicket.
Young paced his innings slowly and reached his 4th ODI half century in the process. Mustafizur was recalled in the attack as Bangladesh looked for wickets and chipped straightaway removing Nicholls for 44, Young departed soon with Nasum claiming his first wicket.
The left arm spinner had more to rejoice as the Bangla tigers successfully referred a decision against Rachin Ravindra to dismiss the allrounder for a silver duck. Co-incidentally, Bangladesh had failed to refer another LBW decision earlier in the innings which would have got them a breakthrough.
Cole McConchie joined Tom Blundell at the crease and with both the batters unbeaten on 8, the rain appeared once more and after a long break of close to 2 hours, the umpires decided to call it a day with the conditions also declining.
The teams will now see each other in the 2nd ODI this Saturday at the same venue.