Guptill, Nicholls seize an opening

batting with Henry and I love batting with Colin as well. Whoever I’m opening with it doesn’t bother me too much,’’ Guptill said.

Guptill and Henry will open again in Christchurch tomorrow, then Munro replaces a resting captain Kane Williamson in Dunedin next Wednesday.

Said Guptill of his second partnership with Nicholls: ‘‘The first one didn’t last too long. Today was good, we were able to push through quite a tough period. It wasn’t easy to bat out there with the sun going down.’’

Guptill said the pitch made it difficult to hit through the line, but he showed he was seeing it well when he blasted Bangladesh captain Mashrafe Mortaza over his head for six.

He cleared the rope four times in all in his 118-ball ton, which brought him within one of Nathan Astle’s 16 ODI tons, four behind record-setter Ross Taylor who ended 45 not out.

Bangladesh, without injured star allrounder Shakib Al Hasan, were disappointing. They were slow to adjust to the conditions and a new ball onslaught from Trent Boult and Matt Henry, and 232 was never enough.

Having struggled against a hugely impressive India side, Guptill was just relieved to get back on track. ‘‘We’ve been searching for it all summer and today the bowlers set the tone, the fielding was really good and to start off with a 100 run partnership with the bat just set the game up.’’