NELSON – Captain Kane Williamson and Neil Broom both flirted with centuries as New Zealand cruised to an eight-wicket victory over Bangladesh in their third one-day international to complete a 3-0 series sweep at Saxton Oval in Nelson on Saturday.
Williamson (95 not out) combined with Broom in a 179-run partnership that was broken when the recalled Broom was caught for 97, as the hosts cruised to 239/2 in 41.2 overs.
The visitors had wasted a century opening stand between Tamim Iqbal (59) and Imrul Kayes (44) to reach a below-par 236/9 in their 50 overs.
Jimmy Neesham was 28 not out with Williamson, who eschewed the chance to score his ninth ODI century in order to wrap up the victory instead.
Broom, who was dropped without scoring in the slips off Mustafizur Rahman, scored 109 not out in the second match at the same venue two days ago, having been recalled to the side for the series more than six years after he last played a one-day international for New Zealand.
New Zealand were rarely troubled in their run chase, though faced injury concerns with Martin Guptill having to retire hurt after he pulled up while running an easy single.
The visitors would rue wasting their good start when they lost Imrul in the 22nd over and scored just 39 runs in the next nine overs, while losing three wickets, and left too much for their lower-middle order and bowlers to do.
Nurul Hasan scored an entertaining 44, which included a four and six on the first two balls of the final over by Matt Henry, who then took a good diving catch to dismiss the wicket-keeper and only conceded one run on the last three balls.
Guptill was ruled out of the T20 series against Bangladesh with a hamstring injury and will be replaced by in-form batsman Broom, the country's cricket board said afterwards. Guptill will be sidelined for up to four weeks.
"We needed to replace an attacking opening batsmen, and with Neil's experience opening in the T20 format and his current form – he was a ready-made replacement," coach Mike Hesson said in a statement.
"Martin also leads our fielding in white-ball cricket, and so we're expecting Neil to be a big contributor in that area as well."
The two sides now head to Napier for the first of their three T20 matches on January 3.