Published: Nov 26, 2014, 07:04 PM (IST)
Edited: Nov 26, 2014, 09:43 PM (IST)
Nov 26, 2014
Bangladesh beat Zimbabwe by a massive margin of 124 runs to win the third One-Day International (ODI) at Dhaka and pocket the series. The Zimbabweans were dished out yet another hammering by the hosts by virtue of which Bangladesh have taken an unassailable three nil lead in the ongoing five match ODI series.
Zimbabwe who were set a target of 298 to keep the series alive, were never in the contest as they got off to the worst possible start losing both their openers within the first five overs. The Bangladesh skipper Mashrafe Mortaza accounted for both those wickets that essentially started the down slide. The habitual loss of wickets in clusters pegged the meek visitors back at various stages of the game.
To entertain any thoughts of chasing down 298, Zimbabwe required significant contributions from their top order which have eluded them through the course of the ODI series. The pattern continued as neither one of Hamilton Masakadza or Brendon Taylor managed to bat long enough to have an impact. They scored 12 and 28 respectively.
Elton Chigumbura made a late charge towards the Bangladesh score, but to no avail as nobody hung around long enough with him to give the visitors a realistic shot at the target. The Zimbabwean captain top scored with 53 . where as his counterpart Mashrafe Mortaza along with Arafat Sunny were the pick of the Bangladesh bowlers. Even with the unfortunate injury to opening bowler Shafiful Islam, the hosts had enough ammunition at their disposal to knock the wind out of the Zimbabwean chase. This loss meant that Zimbabwe are yet to register a win on this tour, they had lost all the three Test Matches preceding the ODI series also.
Earlier in the day, having been inserted into bat, the Bangladesh openers made the most of their good form, registering a second successive partnership of over a hundred, becoming the first opening combination for Bangladesh to achieve that rare distinction. Although Both Tamim Iqbal and Anamul Haque missed out on their respective fifty and hundreds. In fact it was a day of missed opportunities in that regard with Shakib-Al-Hassan falling 24 runs short of the 4000 run mark. The two dead rubbers left will be played in Dhaka on November 28th and December 1st
Brief scores:
Bangladesh 297 for 6 in 50 overs (Anamul Haque 95, Tamim Iqbal 40; Tinashe Panyangara 2 for 54, Hamilton Masakadza 1 for 25 ) beat Zimbabwe 173 in 39.5 overs ( Elton Chigumbura 53 (46) , Brendon Taylor 28 (40), Arafat Sunny 4 for 27 , Rubel Hussain 2 for 22) by 124 runs.
Man of the Match: Anamul Haque
