Cricket: Black Caps complete whitewash

7.15am - By MARTYN WATTERSON

DHAKA - Half centuries from Mathew Sinclair and Scott Styris saw the Black Caps complete their cricket tour of Bangladesh with a more polished performance they will need in Australia over the next few weeks.

They won the third one-day cricket international this morning (NZT) just as easily as they did the first two games.

Sinclair's 66, and a timely 51 from Styris -- who was named man of the match and player of the series -- led the Black Caps to an 83-run win. Bangladesh never threatened their 250 for seven.

The game lingered to its death as the hosts were content to see out their 50 overs for the first time in the series, finishing on 167 for seven.

New Zealand won the first match by 138 runs before taking game two by three wickets.

Daniel Vettori took three for 25 today to seal his first series as captain with a three-nil whitewash, although the team produced some mixed performances en-route.

"We were happy to put 250 on the board. We got there in a little bit of a round-about way but there were some good partnerships in the end and a very good performance in the field to finish it off," Vettori told NZPA.

"Obviously we were expected to win three-nil, but it's all well and good saying that, so it's nice to get it out of the way and perform so well in the last game."

After Vettori won the toss and chose to bat, the Black Caps innings mirrored their batting from the second match on Friday, with Sinclair and Nathan Astle sewing together an opening partnership of over 70.

Sinclair backed up his seventh ODI 50 from Friday, taking just 59 balls for his consecutive half century and looks almost certain to have secured the one-day opening spot against Australia.

But when Astle was run out for 27, another three wickets fell in the space of 33 runs.

Styris and Craig McMillan then banded together for a fifth wicket partnership of 86 which carried the score from 105 for four to 191 for five when McMillan fell for 39.

Styris hit his 10th ODI half-century an over later, taking 66 balls, with one six and a boundary.

Once he departed with New Zealand on 207, the scene was set for Chris Cairns to launch a late attack with 34 from 16 balls. That included three sixes, while Vettori was left not out on 18.

Spinner Mohammad Rafique proved his liking for New Zealand batters, taking four for 63, with Bangladesh providing another top fielding display. But their lacklustre batting surfaced in the run chase despite a positive start.

At 15 for one Rafique and Nafees Iqbal kept the game alive as they scored the required run rate for the first eight overs.

But two quick wickets saw the scoring rate plummet with only 16 runs coming between the 11th and 20th overs.

Iqbal and captain Khaled Mashud ensured they would bat out their 50 overs with both batsmen scoring 40 each, but from the mid-way point of their innings the Black Caps were never threatened on another Bangabandhu National Stadium pitch that slowed drastically as the match progressed.

Despite the ease of victory in two games, and the two-match test series, Vettori drew positives from the month-long tour as they looked ahead to two-tests and three ODI's against Australia this month.

"Whilst it wasn't the hardest series, we benefited from coming over here playing in tough conditions and we'll be more battle ready when we get to Australia as opposed to a couple of warm-up games and nothing else," he said.

"We've played a lot of one-day cricket, so it was good to get some test match cricket under our belts."

Coach John Bracewell supported his skipper's sentiments.

"We're going to Australia to measure ourselves against the best in the world and that's why we play cricket," he said.

"Our preparation is about spending time in the middle and becoming battle hardened regardless of the conditions in probably what will be completely different to what we'll find in Australia. We'll just have to adjust to that very quickly."

The team leave Bangladesh tomorrow.

New Zealand

N Astle run out 27

M Sinclair c&b Rafique 66

C Harris lbw b Ahmed 9

H Marshall c Saleh b Rafique 0

S Styris c Kapali b Rafique 51

C McMillan c&b Rafique 39

C Cairns c Saleh b Baisya 34

D Vettori not out 18

Extras (3lb, 3w) 6

Total (for 7 wkts, 50 overs) 250

Fall: 72 (Astle), 99 (Harris), 102 (Marshall), 105 (Sinclair), 191 (McMillan), 207 (Styris), 250 (Cairns)

Bowling: T Baisya 5-0-35-1, M Rahman 8-1-28-0, A Ahmed 10-0-36-1, M Rana 9-0-46-0 (3w), M Rafique 10-0-63-4, R Saleh 4-0-18-0, A Kapali 4-0-21-0

Bangladesh

J Omar lbw Franklin 8

M Rafique lbw Mills 21

N Iqbal c Sinclair b Vettori 40

R Saleh lbw Styris 0

M Ashraful c Sinclair b Vettori 13

A Ahmed c Harris b Vettori 8

K Mashud not out 40

A Kapali b Cairns 17

M Rana not out 8

Extras (4lb, 4nb, 4w) 12

Total (for 7 wkts, 50 overs) 167

Fall: 15 (Omar), 42 (Rafique), 48 (Saleh), 86 (Iqbal), 96 (Ashraful), 109 (Ahmed), 138 (Kapali)

Bowling: K Mills 10-1-39-1 (4w), J Franklin 9-2-29-1 (4nb), S Styris 10-1-31-1, C Cairns 7-0-21-1, D Vettori 10-0-25-3, C Harris 4-0-18-0

Result: New Zealand won by 83 runs

- NZPA