David Leggat: Better - what Bangladesh are and NZ need to be

The website caption of a photograph of Bangladesh players celebrating their one-day series victory over New Zealand billed it as their first against "full strength, top class opposition".

New Zealand have been neither.

Sooner rather than later someone was going to lose an ODI series to Bangladesh. It happened to be New Zealand.

They got a warning across their bows a couple of seasons ago when they scraped a 2-1 series win.

It means at least a couple of things: Bangladesh are getting better, as was always going to happen given time and a growing depth of experience, and New Zealand have a pile of work to do to get their act together before the February-March World Cup on the sub-continent.

There will be the usual noises about players being tried out to increase the number of those who have had a taste of international cricket, of having to accept setbacks for the longer term objective.

To a point, that's fair enough. But only to a point. The likes of Shanan Stewart, BJ Watling and Hamish Bennett fit that bill.

Having both warmup games washed out didn't help preparations for the five ODIs, the last of which is a dead rubber tomorrow night.

Still, they should have been better than they were.

New Zealand cannot claim the conditions caught them out. What did they expect in Bangladesh, fast, bouncy pitches tailored to heavy scoring?

Kane Williamson's century is obviously the one positive from this tour.

This is New Zealand's second trip to the region in the past few weeks. It was touted as ideal acclimatisation before the World Cup, and for a test and ODI tour of India next month.

In Sri Lanka, New Zealand had one win and two losses from four games. Throw in this trip and it's clear they have some hard thinking ahead, not to mention having to harden their approach.

Shakib al Hasan, Bangladesh's outstanding allrounder, is a top class cricketer.

He has others with him who are no slouches, and the flying Tamim Iqbal is not there to throw a firecracker or five at the top of the innings.

"They showed us how to play in these conditions," New Zealand captain Dan Vettori said.

"We've put ourselves in tough positions with the bat."

This sounds a familiar lament. You have to wonder whether advice is being heeded, lessons learned.

Ignominy awaits tomorrow night unless New Zealand smarten up their ideas.