Ferguson says playing on spinning tracks 'always helpful'

For a decent Sher-E-Bangla National Cricket Stadium crowd in a low-key Bangladesh-New Zealand first ODI, it was a disappointing sight to see the match getting abandoned. On a slow, low Mirpur wicket, Mustafizur Rahman and Nasum Ahmed made life difficult for the Black Caps but the visitors won't be unhappy with how the game went.

Several key figures from both sides are not featuring in the series but it's going to be the last ODI series before the World Cup for some of the players taking part in the showpiece event next month. 

It was a pretty good outing for two World Cup-bound players - Will Young and Henry Nicholls. Young got off to a very slow start in challenging conditions but overcame it before getting out on 58 off 91 balls.

The left-handed Nicholls was the more fluent of the two as he added 97 off 117 with Young. 

New Zealand skipper Lockie Ferguson hailed the duo for forging an excellent stand in tough conditions where the ball was doing a lot of talking. 

"Certainly today was challenging for the boys. And I thought the way Youngie and Nicholls sort of batted through that middle part there and really cemented a potential platform for us. Obviously difficult coming on and off with rain as well, but it wasn't easy," said Ferguson.

"Bangladesh bowled really well. Clearly there was some spin, and Mustafiz bowled really nicely as well. So, good learning to take into the game too, but it's just unfortunate that it rained," he said. 

Mustafizur Rahman and Tanzim Hasan Sakib started well with the new ball, hitting the seam in search of some movement. But as the ball grew older, the spinners came into play. Nasum Ahmed turned the ball square and Mustafizur started using his change-ups.

"I thought Mustafiz bowled really nicely, and hit the seam with the new ball. And obviously as the ball gets a bit older, it gets a bit slower. The fielders tend to push out as well. Maybe it makes it look a bit slower, but it's probably pretty hard for me to make that assessment without having batted on it or bowled," Ferguson stated. 

The New Zealand skipper is not sure if the conditions will be similar in India but said playing on such pitches are "always helpful".

"The conditions here might be different than in India, but certainly playing on spinning tracks is always helpful," he mentioned. "I'm not sure if it's going to be the same in Bangladesh as in India. But yeah, from our point of view, we're just taking those learnings and focusing on this series. Game 2 is obviously only a couple days away, so no doubt we'll regroup, talk about today and see what works and then pass the information on to the bowlers to hopefully have a dip on Saturday."