Bangladesh wrapped up the ODI series against Zimbabwe beating the Africans by 58 runs in the second ODI at Mirpur on Monday.They had earlier beaten them in the first ODI at the same venue on Saturday.This is Bangladesh’s fifth ODI series win at home.Zimbabwe struggled chasing a 242-run target set by Tigers, losing wickets at regular intervals.They were bowled out for 183 in the 44th over.Mustafizur Rahman turned out to be chief destroyer with 3 wickets for 33 runs.The Tigers piled on pressure from the start when Arafat Sunny sent back Regis Chakabva in the fifth over.Skipper Mashrafe Bin Mortaza struck in the next over taking the wicket of Chamu Chibhabha (14), his only wicket in the match.Nasir Hossain caught Sean Williams (14) off Mustafizur Rahman in the ninth over.Zimbabwe was looking to recover from the early shock when Craig Ervine put on a 33-run partnership with skipper Elton Chigumbura.But that ended when Ervine was run out for 26 in the 20th over.A determined Chigumbura pulled off a 73-run stand with Sikandar Raza.Al-Amin Hossain gave Bangladesh the much-needed breakthrough in his second spell in the 34th over when he had Raza (33) caught by Imrul Kayes.Hossain struck again two overs later getting Chigumbura out for 47.Bangladesh took control of the match with Zimbabwe struggling at 156 for 6 in the 36th over.The visitors lost their last six wickets for just 32 runs with Mustafiz polishing off the tail.
Earlier, the hosts had batted through the first innings to put up 241 on the board, losing nine wickets.That turned out to be a reasonable total on the Mirpur pitch.Kayes was adjudged the player of the match for his 76-run innings.His opening stand with Tamim Iqbal lasted until the seventh over when Tamim was caught off Tinashe Panyangara by Chakabva.Liton Das, who replaced Tamim, walked back after scoring only seven runs. He was Panyangara’s second victim.Mahmudullah failed to shine again, was out for 4 caught by Chakabva off Graeme Cremer.That left the Tigers struggling at 79 for 3 in the 18th over.But Kayes and Mushfiqur Rahim put up am impressive fight with their 48-run stand until Mushfiqur, the centurion in the first match, fell to Cremer’s spin 10 overs later.Left-hander Kayes (76) batted magnificently until he was caught by Cremer after completing his 11th ODI half-century.
Bangladesh was in a tight spot after losing top five batsmen in the 32nd over with 151 runs on board.Nasir Hossain and Sabbir Rahman put on 42 runs and carried the Tigers past the 200-mark, before Sabbir (33) fell to an easy catch to Chakabva off Luke Jongwe.The Tigers only scored 53 runs off the last 10 overs and lost four wickets.Skipper Mashrafe put on 38 runs with Nasir in the late overs before Panyangara sent Nasir back to the pavilion.
