Wellington, Jan 16 (IANS): After suffering a confidence-crippling defeat to New Zealand in the first cricket Test, Bangladesh captain Mushfiqur Rahim on Monday said the team was let down by its bowling.

He said things could have been different if the bowlers could keep the Kiwi batsmen under pressure from both ends, reports bdnews24.com.

Chasing 217 in a maximum of 48 overs, after Bangladesh was dismissed for 160 in its second innings, New Zealand reached the target in 39.4 overs , losing three wickets, to take a 1-0 lead in the two-match series.

Young spinner Mehedi Hasan Miraz picked out the openers early to reduce the hosts to 39 for 2, but none of the bowlers were able to curb the counter-attack from centurion Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor that followed. New Zealand won by seven wickets.

Although spinner Shakib Al Hasan kept things tight from one end, Williamson (unbeaten 104) and Taylor (60) milked the runs off bowlers from the other end.

The pair put paid to Bangladesh's hopes with a 163-run partnership as New Zealand took 1-0 lead in the two match series.

"We had some injury issues but we lost the match for our bowling. We needed to create pressure from both ends. Our bowling is inexperienced. I hope they will learn quickly," Mushfiqur said after the match.

Even with a 595 runs on the scoreboard in the first innings, Bangladesh's inexperienced pace attack of Taskin Ahmed and Subashis Roy on debut were unable to put New Zealand under sustained pressure with the ball.

"We didn't execute our plans the way we should have and if we had, we could have had a 200-run lead in the first innings and it would have been a different ball game," Mushfiqur added.

"If you want to take a wicket in Test cricket you have to bowl consistently well and we couldn't do that. We had some great partnerships in the batting but didn't have any in the bowling and we need to do that if you want to get them out. We will work on that and get better in the second Test."

The second Test begins in Christchurch on Friday.