Lucky Oram hails tough win

All-rounder's stellar performance the 'icing on the cake'

By Elliot Ball   Last updated: 12th October 2008   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Lucky Oram hails tough win

Oram: Match-winning innings

To be honest that last over was great for us. It was lucky. I think if we'd got to 200 we would have been happy but to get 212 was icing on the cake.

Jacob Oram
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Star performer Jacob Oram admitted he felt lucky after helping New Zealand draw level in their one-day series against Bangladesh with a 75-run win in Mirpur.

The talented all-rounder was in fine form with bat and ball as he hit an unbeaten 75 and took two wickets and two catches.

But the Black Caps batting order once again threatened to crumble, struggling to 115 for seven at one point, with Syed Rasel taking the early wickets of Brendon McCullum, Jamie How and Jesse Ryder.

Mashrafe Mortaza sent Scott Styris back to the pavilion without troubling the scorers before Daniel Flynn, Ross Taylor and captain Daniel Vettori were all then dispatched.

It was left to Oram to push the visitors beyond the 200 mark, which he did by smashing 25 runs off the final over by Abdul Razzak.

And Oram confessed it had been a difficult day of cricket for the tourists.

"It was another slow wicket, probably even a little slower than the wicket the other day. I thought the Bangladesh guys bowled really well on it and it was tough to get going," Oram said.

"They set good fields and with wickets falling we weren't going to take any risks so we basically had to get ourselves in and try and conserve wickets or time at the end to have a bit of a go," he told Sky Sports.

"To be honest that last over was great for us. It was lucky. I think if we'd got to 200 we would have been happy but to get 212 was icing on the cake."

Spark

Oram's heroics at the end of the Black Caps' innings gave his team-mates the spark needed when the tourists took up with the ball with Kyle Mills and Tim Southee accounting for Tamim Iqbal, Zunaed Siddique and Mushfiqur Rahim early.

They then put the squeeze on the Bangladesh batsmen, who were always chasing the required run-rate and captain Mohammad Ashraful conceded it had been the batting which had let his side down.

"Our bowlers and fielders did a very good job but we didn't bat well, especially in the first 20 overs where we scored just 50. That's the area where we lost the game I think."