Dean Foxcroft has waited a while for his second one-day international. On Friday night in Mirpur he made it count, top-scoring with 59 from 58 balls and then nipping out Litton Das with his very first delivery in international cricket. New Zealand, stop-start with the bat but tight in the field, edged Bangladesh by 27 runs to go 1-0 up in the three-match series.
New Zealand’s 248 for 8 never looked imposing. But the pitch slowed, the lights came on and Foxcroft’s off-break, fizzed through with a touch of overspin, zipped past Litton’s outside edge and clipped off stump. “I was obviously very happy with [the wicket] in my first bowl in international cricket,” Foxcroft said afterwards. “It was just about understanding how we’re going to bowl on that wicket and what’s going to work for us as a bowling unit. We thought the best way is to bowl quickly [with] a bit of turn. As soon as the lights came on, we thought the wicket will spin a bit more. I just thought I’d let it go, and it felt good. It was my first international wicket, so we’ll take that.”
Litton’s dismissal stalled Bangladesh at 112 for 3 and the home side never quite caught up. Jayden Lennox, another of New Zealand’s three debutant spinners, kept a lid on things, while skipper Tom Latham shuffled his bowlers sensibly as the dew stayed away.
Earlier, Foxcroft walked in at 112 for 4 with Shoriful Islam tail up. Twelve balls later he was punching the same left-armer past mid-on and settling nerves that had followed him since his maiden ODI, here in 2023. “I remember I came to bat at three, and Shoriful got me through the gate,” he recalled. “It was a different role today, batting at six. I was happy to survive my first ball. Then all the nerves have slowed down a little bit. You have just got to look past it and focus on today and the games coming up.”
This is Foxcroft’s fourth visit to Bangladesh, stretching back to the 2016 Under-19 World Cup when he toured with South Africa. Familiarity, though, has not bred complacency, and the 27-year-old leaned on Latham, Henry Nicholls and Will Young in the build-up. “Everyone’s got great knowledge on how to play on these wickets,” he said. “Guys like Tom Latham, Henry Nicholls and Will Young played a lot of cricket. So it’s obviously very important for myself and other young guys as well, trying to learn from those guys and ask good questions on how to play spinners and even the seamers on these wickets.”
New Zealand’s preparation seems to have helped. “I think the wicket played beautifully. I think in the past, the boys had mixed messages about how the wicket was going to play. Credit to the training wickets as well. We thought the training wickets were pretty good, and it’s quite similar to the wicket in the middle,” Foxcroft noted. “It’s just making sure we adapt to the best.”
Bangladesh will argue they let things slip: too many singles leaked to Foxcroft and Nicholls, too few partnerships after Mushfiqur Rahim was lbw reverse-sweeping Lennox. But the series moves quickly; match two is on Sunday at the same ground. For the tourists, Foxcroft’s dual contribution has already eased several selection headaches. For Bangladesh, finding a way past New Zealand’s three-pronged spin attack has become the urgent task.
