Dhaka, Oct 24 – Bangladesh clinched the three-match ODI series 2-0 with one match to spare as they routed visiting Zimbabwe by seven wickets in the second day-night game at Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chattogram on Wednesday. This is Bangladesh’s 10th series victory, including three successive series wins at home, against Zimbabwe in their 16 bilateral series in this format.
Bangladesh recorded 12 successive wins in their 43 victories in 71 ODIs against the visitors.
Mohammad Mithun hit a six off Cephas Zhuwao to take Bangladesh to 250 for 3 in 44.1 overs for the win in reply to Zimbabwe’s 246/7 in 50 overs.
Bangladesh inning was spurred by two half-centuries by openers Imrul Kayes [90] and Liton Kumar Das [83] alongside their opening pair stand of 148 off 24 overs.
Imrul Kayes, who hit his career-best 144 runs and shared the 7th pair stand of 127 off 19.1 overs with Mohammad Saifuddin in the first match for a 28-run victory in Dhaka on October 21, fell short by 10 runs to score a back-to-back century as he was caught by Elton Chigumbura off Sikandar Raza on 211/3 in 37.3 overs.
Imrul Kayes played his innings from 111 balls firing seven boundaries while Liton played 77 balls featuring 12 boundaries and one six before being removed from the opening stand.
Liton was caught by Donald Tiripano off Sikandar Raza, which provided Fazle Mahmud Rabbi with a second chance to prove his worth after being dismissed for duck in the first match on his debut, but he failed again.
Then Imrul Kayes played another partnership of 59 off 11.2 overs with Mushfiqur Rahim in the third wicket before Mushfiq [40* off 52b; 2×4; 1×6] and Mithun [24* off 21b; 2×4; 1×6] paired for unbeaten 39* off 6.2 overs in the 4th wicket stand.
Sikandar Raza got all three wickets for Zimbabwe conceding 43 runs in 10 overs.
Earlier, sent in to bat first, Zimbabwe players Brendan Taylor [73-ball 75], Sikandar Raza [61-ball 49] and Sean Williams [76-ball 47] played carefully to handle Bangladesh bowling attacks in their total of 247 for 7 in 50 overs.
Mohammad Saifuddin got skipper-cum-opener Hamilton Masakadza on 18 in 4.5 overs before Brendan Taylor came to the crease to play his innings, which included two partnership score of 77 off 17.3 overs and 52 off 8.5 overs with Cephas Zhuwao and Sean Williams in the 3rd and 2nd wicket respectively.
Brendan Taylor hit nine boundaries and one six before being trapped lbw by Mahmudullah Riyad on 147/3 in 29.3 overs. Mehidy Hasan Miraz got Cephas Zhuwao [27-ball 20] to remove the second partnership on 70/2 in 12th overs.
Saifuddin claimed his 2nd wicket dismissing SC Williams, who hit two boundaries in his innings and shared a partnership of 41 off 8.3 overs in the 4th wicket with Sikandar Raza, on 188/4 in 38 overs.
S Raza, who fired three boundaries and two sixes in his innings, continued his composure in the next wicket with Peter Moor [20-ball 17] for another partnership of 41 off 7.3 overs before skipper Mashrafe Bin Mortaza got him on 229/5 in 45.3 overs.
Man of the match Saifuddin captured three wickets for 45 runs in 10 overs while Mahmudullah [1/21], Mustafizur Rahman [1/35], Mehidy Hasan Miraz [1/45] and Mashrafe [1/49] equally shared four wickets for Bangladesh.
Having a 1-0 lead in the series with a convincing 28-run victory in the first match in Dhaka, Bangladesh opted to bowl first in the 2nd match.
The third match of the series will be held at the same venue on Friday. – UNB
