Cricket: Tom Latham steps up for the Black Caps

Tom Latham receives a standing ovation after his innings of 137. Photo / Getty

After New Zealand's 3-0 Chappell-Hadlee Trophy loss to Australia this month, a senior player needed to stand up against Bangladesh.

Tom Latham answered the call.

The 24-year-old Cantabrian built close to the ultimate opener's one-day international knock in the 77-run defeat of the tourists in front of his home crowd at Christchurch.

He survived all but 15 balls of the New Zealand innings before edging Mustafizur Rahman behind for 137 off 121. He hit seven fours and four sixes as part of his 113 strike rate which rose from 89 when he reached 50.

After a blip of 34 runs in three innings against Australia, the innings reinforced Latham's efforts in the 3-2 ODI series loss to India where he topped the averages with 61 and had a strike rate of 89.

Latham's case strengthens as the long-term opening replacement for Brendon McCullum.

"It was nice to put a score on the board after coming home from Australia without doing so well," he said.

A raucous welcome rolled around the boutique ground as Latham went out to bat. While he was unaware of the initial support, it was impossible to ignore the standing ovation as he reached his hundred off as many balls.

"They're not really a loud crowd here in Christchurch, but when I got the hundred... well, it was a special moment for me.

"We lost wickets [regularly] until Colin came out, but we managed a good partnership [of 158] when the innings could have gone either way. We made up runs at the end, we used the shorter boundary with the [north-east] wind efficiently and ran between the wickets well on a big ground.

"If you look at our line-up there's a lot of power towards the back end, so if we wanted to attack in those last 10 overs we needed someone to stick there. Fortunately it was me."

Latham earned plaudits from Bangladesh captain Mashrafe Mortaza.

"He was up to the mark and, along with Munro, took the game from us. If we could've restricted them to 300 it might have been a different game.

"We bowled too many short balls to him. The New Zealand bowlers did it better by delivering them at head height. Ours were chest height which made them easier to play."