For a moment, imagine that you didn't see Friday's World Cup match between Bangladesh and New Zealand. Someone tells you that one of the teams got restricted to 245 after batting the entire 50 overs in Chennai.

If you had been following the reports from local media leading up to the match, you most likely would have presumed that this was the result of spinners once again ruling the roost in Chennai.

If you are a fan of Bangladesh cricket, you had probably hoped that it was the Tigers who had strangled the Kiwis with their spin attack as expectations were that the ball would turn square at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, much like it did during the World Cup match between India and Australia.

However, a quick glance at the scorecard shows that none of the spinners were able to leave their mark in the game – neither from Bangladesh nor from New Zealand, as on Friday, the Kiwi pacers stole the show.

The nature of the pitch came as a surprise for the fans. But both teams had read the pitch beforehand which was apparent from their playing XIs. New Zealand didn't drop a pacer to play an extra spinner while Bangladesh dropped spinner Mahedi Hasan for batter Mahmudullah.

Express pacer Lockie Ferguson kept darting in lethal bouncers aimed at the heads of the Bangladesh batters. Other Kiwi pacers -- Trent Boult and Matt Henry -- also kept pitching the ball short. 

They did so, responding to the different nature of the wicket. India availed the home advantage against Australia and stung them on a spin friendly 22 yards. The Bangladesh-New Zealand match happened at the same ground but on a different pitch, where there was bounce on offer for the pacers.

Kiwi pacers took full advantage of the licence to bowl two short balls in an over as they fulfilled that quota in seemingly every over. Commentator Sanjay Manjrekar pointed out 56 percent of the balls delivered by the New Zealand pacers were pitched in short.

According to ESPNcricinfo, 45 of Ferguson's 60 legal deliveries in the match were pitched either in the short length area or short of a good length. 

Let's take a look at the 12th over of the Bangladesh innings for example. Ferguson bowled a bouncer in the second delivery, the following ball was also a bouncer but was declared a wide for height. Just one ball later, Ferguson again pitched the ball short. And this time, Mehedi Hasan Miraz fell into his trap and offered a catch at fine-leg.

The same tactic was applied against Mushfiqur Rahim. But he handled that line of attack very well, even hitting a few boundaries. But skipper Shakib Al Hasan lost his wicket to a short-pitched delivery.

Bangladesh batters are susceptible against short pitch bowling. As per ESPNcricinfo, Bangladesh batter have a strike rate of 85 against that type of bowling in the past two years -- the lowest among all teams in the World Cup. The Tigers are also amongst the three teams with the lowest average against short balls.

In the post-match presentation ceremony, New Zealand captain Kane Williamson said they decided to adopt the short-ball approach midway into the first Powerplay.

Ferguson said there was more bounce on offer in Chennai compared to Hyderabad, where New Zealand had played their previous two matches in the World Cup.

New Zealand bowled 31 overs of pace, where they claimed seven wickets for 163 runs. Their pacers averaged 23.28, which is the best amongst all pace attacks in Chennai in the past 10 years in matches where the pacers have at least claimed five wickets.

Bangladesh pacers, on the other hand, had a comical average of 135 -- the worst ever in Chennai in matches where teams had bowled at least 20 overs of pace. The Bangladesh quicks bowled 23.5 overs, gave away 135 runs and took just one wicket.

In the end, the match wasn't a battle between spin attacks, as the media had speculated. It was a game where New Zealand unleashed a short ball barrage and the Bangladesh batters meekly surrendered.