Teams arrive in Chittagong

Bangladesh opener Tamim IqbalTamim Iqbal (L) signs an autograph for an adulating fan on his arrival at the Shah Amanat Airport in Chittagong yesterday. Tamim has been in a lean patch of late and will hope that playing in his home city will inspire him to a big score in the final ODI against New Zealand tomorrow.
Both Bangladesh and visiting New Zealand cricket teams arrived in the port city yesterday to play the third and last one-day international of the Brac Bank Series tomorrow at the Chittagong Divisional Stadium.

The Tigers were the first batch to arrive at the Shah Amanat International Airport at 10:15am. The Kiwis landed after two-and-a-half hours.

Although the teams reached here early, they however opted to take a day off yesterday after playing two matches inside three days in sweltering heat in Dhaka. They are scheduled to train at the game venue today.

Bangladesh skipper Mohammad AshrafulMohammad Ashraful and his boys were seen in quite a different mood than previous occasions when they touched the Chittagong soil to play the series-deciding match against the visitors.

After beating the mighty opponents for the first time in front of home crowd in the first ODI at Mirpur on Thursday and then spoiling a 'golden' opportunity to wrap up the series two days later, an upbeat Bangladesh captain was full of confidence to say yet again that the Kiwis were beatable and a series win against them was no longer a daydream.

"Earlier, we used to look for a competitive game alongside one or two happy-hunting. But this time it's a changed scenario and we can hope for even a series win, provided we repeat the character and click in all departments like the first match," the dapper captain said.

"We had a golden chance to win the series in the second match, but unfortunately we missed it. We are now only thinking about the next match with some game plans," Ashraful said.

Bangladesh played 14 matches in Chittagong. Of those, they won two -- the first one came against Zimbabwe on January 26, 2005 at the MA Aziz Stadium and the second against Scotland in December 2006 at the Divisional Stadium.

The Tigers have so far played 10 matches at the MA Aziz and four at the Divisional Stadium.

The Black Caps however kept mum when some reporters approached them.