Taylor inspires Black Caps to series win

CHITTAGONG (Bangladesh) (AFP) - Ross Taylor hit a fighting hundred to help New Zealand beat Bangladesh by 79 runs in the third and final one-day international here on Tuesday for a 2-1 win in the three-match series.

The 24-year-old Taylor, who scored 103 for his third one-day century, carried New Zealand to a decent 249-7 in 50 overs before the visitors restricted Bangladesh to 170-8.

Bangladesh were seeking their first series win over a major Test playing country before a 14,000 capacity crowd at the Divisional Stadium, but it was the tourists who took the honours.

"We would have loved to make it 3-0 but a win is a win," said New Zealand skipper Daniel Vettori."Taylor set up the win and had we not lost (Jacob) Oram early we were targetting 300 runs. But 250 was a decent target," said Vettori.In reply, only Tamim Iqbal (35) batted with authority for the hosts as paceman Kyle Mills initiated the slump by removing opener Zunaed Siddique (one) before Oram dismissed debutant Imrul Kayes (12) and skipper Mohammad Ashraful (eight) in his incisive five-over first spell.

Off-spinner Jeetan Patel then took over, dismissing dangerous-looking local boy Iqbal and then accounting for Shakib Al Hasan (one) to end all hopes of Bangladesh successfully chasing the target.

From 98-7, Naeem Islam (46 not out) and Abdur Razzak (28) gave the score some respectability but it only delayed the inevitable."From a good position of 49-1 we lost four wickets," Bangladesh's Australian coach Jamie Siddons said.

"We did the same in the second match where we lost crucial wickets and spurned a chance to win the series there. Taylor showed how our batsmen should have batted."