Ravindra, Bracewell put New Zealand in semis

With a game to spare and that game is against India, so they could go into it pressure free and gather information about a team that they may well face in the final.

Bracewell's 4 for 26 off 10 uninterrupted overs and Ravindra's 112 off 105 balls have once again shown the richness of this squad, that match-winning contributions can come from anywhere.

Bangladesh are out of the tournament. Pakistan are out of the tournament too. Shame, this is such a big occasion to them, hosting an ICC event again.

So what can Bangladesh take out of this campaign?

Well Nahid Rana is a hit. He's bowling 148 kph thunderbolts and he's capable of taking down the world's best batters.

Najmul Hossain Shanto looks like a brave captain. He had two slips in place and his desire to pick up wickets must have played a part in his quicks bowling that full length early in the chase. It worked well for a while.

Mushfiqur hasn't fired in this tournament. Does that put pressure on his place?

And the selectors dropping Litton Das from this squad isn't looking like a very bright move. In both their losses, they've come up short on runs and he is the kind of player who could have provided them.

So many teams are in transition right now but all through this Champions Trophy New Zealand have been showing that their new generation is ready for the big time. There was a time when Kane Williamson was carrying this batting line-up. It seems Rachin Ravindra wants that responsibility now. He didn't mind slotting into an unfamiliar position. He didn't flinch having to come out at 15 for 2. He didn't stop smiling when he brought up his hundred, an innings that will soon confirm not just his team's spot in the semi-finals but also India's. Pakistan and Bangladesh are going to be knocked out.

And Ravindra is looking at a century. It was only half an hour ago that he raised his bat for fifty. Dude's good.

Ravindra lit up the opening game of 2023 ODI World Cup with a century. He's 10 away here in the Champions Trophy. Just 25 years old and already a big-match player.

"Gentlemen, we are seeing the emergence of one of the great modern-day players," says Matthew Hayden on commentary.

He's a fixture in the NZ side across formats. No. 4 in Tests. Opener, I think is his best position in ODIs. It almost worked in his favour, those two early wickets helping him come in during the field restrictions. With only two men out on the boundary, he was able to maximise on his touch play.

Ravindra gets to his fifty with a four too - his sixth but just his first since the field spread. But that doesn't mean he's been stagnant. He's picked up 28 runs in 29 balls since the 10th over. That tells you how he's been manipulating the field to get those singles and twos, something Bangladesh just couldn't do earlier in the day

Tommy Latham is a wonderful person to have in a crisis. You can totally imagine him side-kicking whoever leads the earth's remaining population at the end of a zombie apocalypse. He's too taking care of business to do the leading himself.

Often seen as a player with a limited range of shots - possibly why he doesn't play a lot of T20s - the ones that he does have leave him well placed to handle difficult pitches. He meets the good length ball with a straight bat. Any length either side of that gets cut or pulled or driven (he's as good as anyone through cover) or swept. That's enough of a range to help him build match-turning partnerships. He also concentrates on playing close to the body.

Bangladesh, though, are doing well, making Latham's job that little bit harder by offering him the kind of bowling he doesn't quite like - he averages 29 against pace since 2022 but 54 against spin. Two left-handers out there might also be delaying the arrival of the legspinner Rishad Hossain

Bangladesh keep themselves in the game with Mustafizur Rahman finding purchase with his famous cutter. That's good signs. It means the pitch will be able to offer the spinners something too. No dew then.

Conway has blocked the good length ball outside off stump with soft hands, but the cut on it makes the ball spin back onto his stumps.

This will be a test of New Zealand's depth, especially with Daryl Mitchell unavailable.

Bangladesh have succeeding by pitching the ball up. So they're trying to do that as often as possible. The problem is the two batters out there are excellent on the drive.

Ravindra nailed one on the front foot and off the back foot against Taskin Ahmed in the seventh over. Devon Conway nailed one down the ground and another through the covers.

Bangladesh are doing the right thing, because wickets are the only way they can stay in this game. But they have two top-class batters who actually rely on moving their feet, both forward and back, for their runs. Some just stand and deliver - their hands and their bats good enough to compensate. But these two - Rachin in particular - are good at picking length and responding to it early.

Conway was one of Ravindra's mentors in Wellington. They bat really well together. Even against spin because Mehidy Hasan Miraz receives the SOS and gets whacked

NZ were 20 for 2 after six overs. They got 29 runs off the three overs immediately afterwards.

This game has totally changed.

It didn't make sense that Bangladesh were happy to front up without Nahid Rana in their first match of this Champions Trophy. He's back in the XI now and he's picked up New Zealand's best batter for just 5. Kane Williamson is the ideal kind of player for a middling chase like this. He wouldn't take undue risks, but he wouldn't leave the scoreboard stagnant either. Taking him out is always key and its been done beautifully.

Rana and Bangladesh deserve a lot of credit here. They had two slips in. Rana's length was perfect. Drawing Williamson forward but never giving him a chance to get to the pitch of the ball. From there, a little bit of movement away secured the edge.

ESPNcricinfo's forecaster records an 11.68% dip in New Zealand's chances of victory at the end of the Rana over that produced the Williamson wicket.

It only took 50 full overs but Bangladesh have finally caught fire.

A wicket in the first over. That makes 236 look a little bigger and it makes your team-mates feel a lot better. Plus the sheer shock value of seeing a ball go right through a batter who scored a century in his last innings will be worth something as well.

New Zealand lose Will Young to a peach of a delivery, pitched up and seaming in through the gate. That is brilliant, fire-starting bowling.

This was a game that Bangladesh had to win to stay alive in the Champions Trophy. But they've batted like that was just too much trouble. They started at nearly a run a ball. But 10 of the next 15 overs went for three runs or fewer. Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah fell from the pressure created in this period. A combined 511 matches' worth of experience was only good for 6 runs in a do-or-die game.

Michael Bracewell bowled all his 10 overs on the trot, picking up four wickets and 43 dot balls. Only Daniel Vettori and Mitchell Santner have ever managed spells that hard to put away for New Zealand and all Bracewell really did was pull the pace off the ball. This pitch might not be the belter that it was supposed to be, but it also isn't as bad as Bangladesh made it out to be. They'd lost so much of their batting that the 45th over turned out to be a maiden. Najmul Hossain Shanto top-scored with 77.

New Zealand will be through to the semi-finals if they win, pulling India along with them.

Bangladesh are running out of batters. Maiden in the 45th over by O'Rourke.

More than half of even the death overs have become dot balls - 16 of 30 so far. New Zealand bowled 162 dot balls in the first game against Pakistan and won that. They've already cleared that count today.

Bangladesh's No. 8 is able to pose more questions to New Zealand's spinners than everyone that came before him. Rishad Hossain allows himself the liberty of moving around in the crease and, when possible, looking to hit over the top. These are basics in the modern day game - a batter is supposed to force a bowler away from plan A. Rishad forced Santner to give up the stumps and bowl wide. That means the only mode of dismissal is caught or stumped or run-out and he guarded against all that.

But he's still a No. 8 batter and Matt Henry comes around and takes him out for 26 off 25.

New Zealand's fielding has also contributed to this game taking the shape it has. Bracewell now provides the help, running across from midwicket down to where the bowler's run-up is to pick up a catch to dismiss Najmul Hossain Shanto for 77 off 110.

Bracewell had the ball in his hand when a couple of short ones were prevented from going to the boundary by Will Young at point and Glenn Phillips at midwicket. People on the boundary like Devon Conway have been able to cut the angles along with making the distance to keep twos down to one. Kane Williamson made a catch running back from cover look ridiculously simple.

Bracewell 10-0-26-4 (43 dot balls)

Santner 5-0-24-0

Over the last five years, their scoring rate against spin is 4.77. Only Afghanistan, among Test playing teams, are slower.

The pitch doesn't fully explain this kind of batting. It's held up, just slightly. But Bangladesh just haven't been able to get singles and twos that would've reduced the dot-ball pressure that keeps mounting on them.

ESPNcricinfo's forecaster, at the end of 32 overs, suggests Bangladesh will only get to 230 at the end of this innings. That is unlikely to keep them alive in the Champions Trophy.

Now Mahmudullah is gone. Bangladesh aren't able to get their runs with risk free shots. They keep collecting dot balls. And then they go for the high risk and it hasn't come off. Bracewell has four-for and the only thing he's really doing is not offering the batters any pace. Poor batting. Sensible bowling. Bracewell has actually bowled 10 overs straight and he's been under no pressure whatsoever. Aren't Bangladesh supposed to play spin better than this? They've turned Bracewell into the 2025 Champions Trophy's joint-highest wicket-taker.

His third in the last eight innings, a sequence which includes his highest ODI score as well, 122 vs Sri Lanka. It's been steady knock, the only trouble he's faced coming from his own team-mates losing the plot at the other end. Mushfiqur's wicket has truly set them back. Until that this game was mostly even. Now New Zealand are just a couple of wickets away from opening up the tail.

Shanto more than ever has to bat the entire innings now and maybe Mahmudullah could give him better company.

So the idea was since he's the right-hander, and Bracewell is turning the ball into him, it was on him to make a play. There's logic in that. The one thing that is maybe working against him is that the leg side boundary - the one he's trying to target - is the longer one. Mushfiqur Rahim backed himself to clear it. He doesn't succeed. So after a first-ball duck in his opening match of the Champions Trophy, he now goes for 2 off 5.

It is possible the pitch is lending a little grip to the spin bowlers. Bracewell has been keen not to push the ball through too quickly. He's always offered it a little air, bowling in the mid 80 kph.

Yields a wicket too. Towhid Hridoy, who did so well to patch up Bangladesh's innings against India, has poked holes into this one by taking up 23 balls to score just 7 runs and then getting out.

Michael Bracewell shows the value he brings to New Zealand, his accurate offspin, particularly the drift he gets away from the bat, making him a viable option for even right-hand batters. Batting strike rate of 115. Bowling economy rate of 4.96. How good is that.

Options. This NZ attack has options. Which feels like an offensive thing to say when one of their very best is out in the Bay of Plenty somewhere with his feet up. Trent Boult is already becoming New Zealand's (storied) past and Will O'Rourke is planting his flag on their future.

He's tall. He's quick. He could even push Pat Cummins for the most movie star looking fast bowler on the planet, except he's not as comfortable in front of the camera. Shy boy. That all takes a back seat when he's running in with a set of stumps to aim at.

Mehidy Hasan Miraz gets tangled up trying to flick a ball that seems to have a little tail into him. That tangle means he can't time the ball. It also means Mitchell Santner takes the easiest catch in cricket history at mid-on. Air speed seems to be a big thing for O'Rourke. He made it count in Galle (8 for 104), which is perhaps the most inhospitable place for fast bowling in the world. He made it count against Virat Kohli (one of his seven wickets in Bengaluru), who is equally inhospitable to pace bowlers.

Reward for New Zealand's ability to think on their feet. Matt Henry is their premier fast bowler. Essentially the first name on that team sheet (and I know that team has a Kane Williamson). They won't function as well without his experience as a new-ball bowler. But Bangladesh were getting used to pace on the ball. So they whip Henry out of the attack, bring in the Michael Bracewell whose stock ball turns away from the two batters out there and it yields a wicket.

Tanzid and his propensity for attempting a few too many of those big shots comes back to bite him and his ODI average will remain stuck in the 20s.

Tanzid Hasan's nickname in the Bangladesh team is Tamim and the resemblance is fairly obvious. Both left-handers. Both opening batters. And both eager to take the game on. With his captain stuck on 8 off 20 at the other end, he's on 24 off 22. His tempo is more indicative of the conditions out there in Rawalpindi. It's a flat pitch. The early movement is already starting to die down.

After 22 ODIs, Tanzid's strike rate is an outstanding, and even, 100. On average, he's been hitting a boundary every six balls. That's maybe too frequent and could be playing a part in his average being only 20.85.

Kyle Jamieson is doing that thing that all tall bowlers do to make them such a menace. They're hitting good lengths but from there the ball lurches up to hit the splice of the bat. It can be disconcerting and that's really his USP. But he's coming into ODI cricket after two whole years out and proof of the fact eventually comes through as he misses his length on the shorter side.

Bangladesh clearly understand the importance of making the powerplay count. They are in need of a par-plus total today because batting is only going to get easier as this game goes on.

Jamieson recovers well with his next two overs

Btw, riiiight at the back of the line, Mark Chapman kinda burst into laughter as someone sneaked a sexy guitar riff into the New Zealand national anthem. Think Glenn Phillips wasn't doing too well in the keeping a straight face department either. I am so for this. Enough of those solemn almost frightened to emote looks. Fun is not wrong.

Mitchell Santner says New Zealand trained on a different ground and there it was very very dewy. Two changes: Jamieson in for Smith and Mitchell is out with illness, which makes room for Ravindra.

Nahid Rana and Mahmudullah are back for Bangladesh. They kept the express fast bowler out of their opening game of the Champions Trophy, which felt a little weird. But he's back, with Tanzim Sakib sitting out. Soumya Sarkar is the other bench warmer so there's going to be a change at the top of their batting line-up. Mehidy Hasan Miraz, who's basically the everything everywhere all at once person for Bangladesh now that Shakib Al Hasan's moved on, is listed to open the innings. Here are the XIs

Short boundary alert. One square boundary is only 65m. The other side is 71m. On top of that, Matthew Hayden says the pitch in Rawalpindi is a belter, which is like saying the sky is blue or fart jokes are funny. Win the toss and bowl, he adds, which is the twisted logic that fuels our game. Because if its a belter now it becomes belter-er in the evening under lights and with dew potentially coming into play. See, cricket is all about delayed gratification. You can't have your fun right away. You gotta wait *checks watch* 10 hours.