New Zealand's Stephen Fleming leaves the field as the Bangladesh team celebrates his dismissal during their World Cup warm-up match in Bridgetown on Tuesday. - Reuters

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC):

THE NEW Zealand players left the Three Ws Oval on Tuesday evening licking their wounds after a bruising defeat at the hands of lowly Bangladesh in their opening Cricket World Cup (CWC) warm-up match.

The Bangladeshis chased the target of 227, reaching 230 for eight off 49 overs with Mashrafee Murtaza winning the match with consecutive big sixes off James Franklyn.

The 17-year-old opener Tamim Iqbal lashed a blazing top score of 46 off 48 balls, with six fours and a gigantic six and thrilled the crowd of 1,200.

New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming said the result was difficult to come to grips with, but they will have to regroup in the coming days.

Their opening World Cup match is against England on March 16 in St. Lucia.

"They (Bangladesh) played aggressively, much to their credit and they were very good in the field as well," Fleming said of the Asian Tigers.

"They kept clinging on and at no stage were we able to shake them off. They stood in our face and we were not able to get the better of them."

New Zealand lost crucial early wickets, but were still able to recover.

Flemingsaid they would have to do some soul searching and will also need to examine why their bowlers were manhandled by the opponents' lower order. He said yesterday's early morning training session would be intense.

"We thought we were OK. But the way they hit the ball, especially that lad (Tamim Iqbal), was quite sensational. Up to the last 10 overs (75 were needed), we still thought we were OK. But they just kept hanging on and they have given us a great, big headache.

"This game shakes us up. When you're in nice surroundings as we are here, you tend to get a bit complacent. So this was a good awakening to let us know we have to be at our best at every stage if we are to win the World Cup," Fleming said.