KEY POINTS:
Not for the first time, New Zealand were left thinking "thank goodness for big Jake" as they prepared to fly to Chittagong yesterday for the third and deciding ODI against Bangladesh.
Without the burly allrounder's booming bat in the second game at the Shere Bangla National Stadium at
Mirpur on Saturday, it's a reasonable bet New Zealand would today be surveying the wreckage of an 0-2 scoreline in a series in which they were expected to canter to a 3-nil sweep.
Instead it's neither and they will square off tomorrow night in a match in which they should be determined to pick up their game by a decent measure.
Bangladesh batted as if they'd left any self-belief at the dressing-room door in trying to chase 212, only to be dismissed for 137 with more than seven overs unbowled.
But had they been pursuing 169, as they should have, it may have produced a markedly different mindset from the home side.
On 168 for nine, at the start of the 47th over and with last man Jeetan Patel at the non-striker's end, Oram struck a ball to deep mid-on. The fielder's throw struck the stumps, with slow-motion replays clearly showing Patel's bat out of the crease.
However, the Bangladeshis did not appeal, a staggering blunder which could be put down to naivety as they assumed Patel had comfortably regained his ground.
Soon after, Oram bludgeoned 25 off the 50th over to push New Zealand beyond 200, and himself to a precious, unbeaten 75 off 62 balls, backing up his top score of 57 in the opening ODI.
Passing 200 appeared well beyond New Zealand's reach after they'd tumbled to 86 for five after 28 overs, the second time in three days the top-order batsmen had not delivered against bowling which was largely honest and workmanlike and stuck to a plan.
Batting was not easy but too many batsmen's feet seemed stuck in glue and, anyway, there can be no complaints. Ask sub-continental batsmen who've come to New Zealand and tried their hand on green seaming pre-Christmas pitches. Hometown pitches are the way of the cricket world.
New Zealand possessed no one with either the stickability to work the ball around and play the lengthy anchor innings, or a batsman to put the heat back on Bangladesh's tidy bowlers by offering sensible aggression.
Jamie How looked completely out of sorts in a 16-ball duck and Scott Styris lazily drove away from his body to be brilliantly caught at slip by Junaid Siddique, also without scoring. So the onus will be on batting coach Mark O'Neill to help unpick the technical issues which have troubled the specialist batsmen.
New Zealand were helped by Bangladesh's possum-in-the-spotlight batting, best exemplified by their snail-like captain Mohammad Ashraful. His 40 off 86 balls kneecapped Bangladesh's chances. The one Bangladeshi batsman with the ability to score rapidly suffered a bad case of stage fright, or badly misjudged the situation, had his mental calculator on the blink and took far too long to get moving, or he had the pricker with someone and decided on a two-hour block-a-thon.
New Zealand's bowlers were more on the job than in the opening game. Kyle Mills started strongly, Oram and Daniel Vettori smothered the innings and the game was up well before Ashraful was smartly caught by wicketkeeper Brendon McCullum standing up to medium pacer Oram.
New Zealand's bowlers were better than in game one, but the tourists will still be thankful for Bangladeshi inexperience and for Oram getting out of the blocks smartly at the start of a long summer.
