Bangladesh will be keen to make it 2-0 when they take on Zimbabwe in the second T20 of the five-match series at Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chattogram today.
The match starts at 6 PM and will be aired live on Gazi TV and T-sports channels.
The hosts grabbed a dominating eight-wicket victory in the first game by showing a superlative performance in all three departments with their bowling attack continuing the purple patch.
The pace spearhead Shoriful Islam though went wicket-less after conceding 37 runs in four overs, it mattered little because of Taskin Ahmed and Mohammad Saifuddin who both took three wickets in an economical bowling show.
Spinners Mahedi Hasan and Rishad Hossain also bowled brilliantly to complement the pacers as Bangladesh bowled Zimbabwe out for paltry 124 in 20 overs. Thereafter they raced to the victory in just 15.2 overs, reaching 126-2 with opener Tanzid Hasan Tamim hammering an unbeaten 47 ball-67 on his debut T20 game.
Amid the clinical performance what still was a spot of bother of their lack of ability to clean the tailenders wicket quickly.
Zimbabwe were slumped to 41-7 after losing six wickets for five runs but Clive Mandane and Wellington Masakadza stitched a national record of 75-run for the eighth wicket to propel the side past 100.
Until they came up with powerful resistance, Bangladesh looked to bundle Zimbabwe out for their lowest total which was 80. However, eighth wicket pair of a team like Zimbabwe, which failed to qualify the T20 World Cup, making 75 runs is a worrying sign for Bangladesh.
Captain Najmul Hossain Shanto was happy to win the game for the time being and want the players to perform at same vein in the coming matches too.
“I think the last couple of days we trained really hard. The way Tanzid batted really helped our team and I hope he will continue his form,” Shanto said.
“Hridoy also batted really well and showed his character on this wicket. Specially I’m very happy for Tanzid because he finished the innings.”
This was Bangladesh’s 14th victory against Zimbabwe in 21 matches in this format. They lost just seven matches to the East African nation.
Zimbabwe Captain Sikandar Raza however urged his senior players to come up with resolve as he wants to level the series by winning the tomorrow’s game.
“I think it is a responsibility for everyone as much as the senior guys would take the blame put our hands up that we got it wrong. The beauty of this team is when we get it right we get it right and everybody do their part but unfortunately there was a lot of guys missing,” Raza said.
“Majority of the senior guys on whom the batting relies on unfortunately could not come to the party. But, we take those harsh lessons and it’s just one game. We are not really proud of the fact that we don’t start our tours well but we will try and make things right then come back better.”
