HIGH SPIRITS: Mehedi Hassan, centre, is having a great day with his Bangladeshi mates. Photo / Andrew Warner
It's a crowd of two halves at the Bay Oval, where New Zealand has the numbers and Bangladesh the colours.
Under a woolly red wig and a Bangladeshi flag, dressed in his favourite team's colours, Mehedi Hassan has a grin wider than an opener's bat. New Zealand are three wickets down, and he has high hopes.
"There are 300Bangladeshi students in town and they are all here," he says.
"We wish we will win."
A few overs later, New Zealand are piling on the runs and Bangladeshi enthusiasm seems to have waned.
Faria Khan, 14, is crossing her fingers that she will get to hold up her 4-6 sign during her team's innings, but thinks that New Zealand are going to win.
"I am not going to lie," she says. "Bangladesh hasn't been playing very well."
The 4-6 signs are already in vigorous use on the embankment behind the crowd, where bored youngsters are using them to slide down the grass.
The afternoon has improved for Daisy, who spent the first 15 overs of play stuck in traffic at Omokoroa. Her father, Paul, says it took two hours to drive from Waihi Beach.
At the halfway stage of the Bangladesh innings, they are looking good at 93 for 3. A bunch of Indian Kiwis are loudly supporting the Black Caps. They are centred around Mary Namala, 21, who has come down from Auckland to watch the game with eight relatives and friends.
New Zealand are heading towards a win now, but 26-year-old Hamiltonian Chris Wilson is enjoying the sunshine and beers as much as the cricket.
"I spend as much time as I can here, mate," he says. "I love the Bay."
The sentiment is shared, it seems, by everyone here.