ZIMBABWE fought back in the T20I series with a convincing 23-run win and a much better all-round show against Bangladesh in the second match at Harare Sports Club yesterday.
Wellington Masakadza’s three-wicket burst broke the visitors’ middle order after Wessley Madhevere’s career-best 73 had fired them to 166 for 6, 14 more than what they managed in the opening fixture.
The visitors’ batting implosion, with most of their main batters getting caught, was coupled with several dropped catches. This was Zimbabwe’s first win of the tour, having already lost the one-off Test and the ODI series 3-0, as well as the first T20I by eight wickets.
Masakadza was all over Bangladesh in this game, taking three wickets and three catches, in his first match-winning performance for Zimbabwe in a six-year career.
But it was Blessing Muzarabani who gave Zimbabwe a good start with the ball. He removed Mohammad Naim and Soumya Sarkar, the opening pair that put together a 102-run stand in the previous game.
Naim inside-edged one onto his stumps before Sarkar mistimed one to covers; both falling within the space of four balls in the third over.
Masakadza came into the game in the seventh over when he had Shakib Al Hasan caught at cover, before Mahmudullah and Mahedi Hasan both holed out in the deep in Masakadza’s next over.
Tendai Chatara provided a further blow by getting Nurul Hasan caught at the point boundary, with Masakadza taking the catch.
Debutant Shamim Hossain then struck a couple of sixes, swept and blasted down the ground, before Masakadza caught him at long-on off Luke Jongwe. Hossain made 29 off 13 balls, finishing with a strike rate of 223.07, the second best by a Bangladeshi on debut.
Chatara had Afif Hossain caught at the deep midwicket boundary in the 18th over, before something really strange happened.
Following an appeal for hit-wicket against Mohammad Saifuddin, replays showed that the bail had fallen on its own, probably due to a breeze, as the middle stump too pegged back on its own.
Jongwe then removed Saifuddin and Taskin Ahmed in the last over to take his tally to three wickets in the innings. Muzarabani and Chatara took two wickets each and Masakadza fittingly took the last catch, as the Bangladesh batters time and again holed out in the deep.
Zimbabwe’s innings got going when Madhevere struck a six and a four off Mahedi at the beginning of the second over although he lost his opening partner Tadiwanashe Marumani later in the same over. Mahedi’s day got worse in the following over when he let go of a skier from Chakabva, running in from deep square leg, after a calling mix-up with Shoriful Islam. Islam, however, redeemed himself in the sixth over when he caught Chakabva at mid-off, off Shakib for 14.
Madhevere and Myers then steadied the hosts with a 57-run third-wicket stand. Myers continued to give away impressive starts, this time striking a 21-ball 26 with two fours and a straight six off Shakib. Madhevere, who was dropped on 44, struck two sixes immediately after the Myers wicket.
But captain Sikandar Raza didn’t last long, getting run out when Sarkar scored a rare direct hit from point, which went through Shakib’s legs.
Madhevere fell in the 18th over when he skied to extra cover, deceived by Islam’s slower ball. He struck five fours and three sixes during his 57-ball stay, all of them hit from the cover to midwicket arc.
It was left to Ryan Burl to provide the finishing touches. He struck both his sixes over midwicket, and two fours, in his unbeaten 19-ball 34. Zimbabwe scored 54 in the last five overs, which gave them the much needed impetus to defend the competitive total. – ESPNcricinfo
