KEY POINTS:
Beating Sri Lanka in their final pre-tournament hitout on Friday suddenly takes on a lot more importance for New Zealand's World Cup hopes.
Nine days out from their competition opener against England, New Zealand were humiliated by regular whipping boys Bangladesh in a warm-up match in Bridgetown.
The
two-wicket loss comes just three weeks after their euphoric 3-0 one-day series humbling of Australia, but Bangladesh paid little respect to their opponents' form as they passed New Zealand's 226 with two wickets and six balls to spare.
Skipper Stephen Fleming admitted he was at a loss to explain the ... loss.
Fleming said: "There's not a lot we can say, I guess it's a result that just shakes you up and the only other positive for us is that this wasn't a pool match but it shows how tough this tournament can be."
Bangladesh tore through New Zealand's top order batting to reduce them to 75 for six after Fleming won the toss and chose to bat.
They stumbled to 21 for three and the situation failed to improve as Mashrafe Mortaza, who finished with four for 44, caused havoc.
Allrounder Jacob Oram, fractured finger and all, stepped up with a belligerent 88, putting on 105 for the seventh wicket with Brendon McCullum, who made 46.
McCullum conceded that on a pitch that flattened out as the match progressed the New Zealanders fell 30 runs short of a defendable total.
"They came out firing and were 60-odd without loss, and when you're chasing 220-odd it's the ideal start," McCullum said.
"I thought we came back nicely. Dan [Vettori] and Jeetan [Patel] bowled well, but at the end of the day 226 wasn't enough, but we probably could have made it enough if we bowled and fielded better than we did."
Javed Omar and Tamim Iqbal rattled on 85 for the opening wicket for Bangladesh.
Iqbal, 17 and with just four one-day internationals behind him, hit a breezy 46 from 48 balls.
Vettori and offspinner Patel applied the screws, but Mortaza capped a fine day's work as he ended the match in style by blasting two successive sixes off James Franklin in the penultimate over.
He hit 30 from 14 balls as Bangladesh reached 230 for eight.
McCullum conceded the loss was a timely wake-up call, but the team were not too despondent.
"It's tough losing to Bangladesh, but ... it's not a bad thing either to come down after the euphoria we were at after the Australia series, to give us a little prick and bring us down a couple of pegs."
The feeling in the camp has been tempered further on confirmation that Mark Gillespie is suffering from acute brachial neuritis, which is affecting the nerves in his right shoulder.
Gillespie was rested from yesterday's match due to an arm which became temporarily numbed after the long flight to the West Indies.
The neuritis resulted from a throat virus he suffered last week. He is on medication and will return to a specialist tomorrow.
NZ V Bangladesh
New Zealand
L. Vincent b Mortaza 4
S. Fleming c Razzak b Rase l0
R. Taylor c Rahim b Mortaza 11
S. Styris c Ashraful b Razzak 26
P. Fulton lbw Mortaza 5
J. Oram c Rasel b Razzak 88
C. McMillan c & b Razzak 5
B. McCullum run out 46
D. Vettori c Omar b Razzak 8
J. Franklin not out 12
S. Bond b Mortaza 4
Extras (8lb, 6nb, 3w) 17
--Total (all out, 47.2 overs) 226
Fall: 1/4, 2/13, 3/21, 4/34, 5/60, 6/75, 7/180, 8/192, 9/218, 10/226.
Bowling: Mortaza 9.2-2-44-4 (2nb), Rasel 8-1-31-1 (2nb), Hossain 1-0-12-0 (2nb), Razzak 10-1-26-4 (1w), Hasan 10-0-49-0 (2w), Baisya 6-0-42-0, Saleh 3-0-14-0.
Bangladesh
J. Omar b Vettori 45
T. Iqbal st McCullum b Vettori 46
A. Ahmed lbw Vettori 0
S. Hasan c McCullum b Patel1 9
H. Bashar run out 20
M. Ashraful lbw Franklin 29
M. Rahim c Styris b Bond 19
R. Saleh c Vincent b Franklin 7
M. Mortaza not out 30
A. Razzak not out 4
Extras (7nb, 4w) 11
--Total (for 8 wkts, 49 overs) 230
Fall: 1/85, 2/85, 3/104, 4/133, 5/143, 6/176, 7/192, 8/199.
Bowling: Franklin 8-0-54-2 (3nb, 1w), Bond 9-0-59-1 (1nb, 1w), Mason 5-0-15-0, Patel 10-0-40-1, Vettori 10-0-38-3 (3nb, 2w), Oram 5-1-14-0, S Styris 2-0-10-0.
Result: Bangladesh won by two wickets.