Improved Zimbabwe fall to classy Shakib display

Shakib Al Hasan put on a classy display as Bangladesh beat Zimbabwe by three wickets, in the second ODI, at Harare Sports Club on Sunday

His unbeaten 96 helped carry the visitors over the line with five balls to spare. This was at a time when an improved performance from Zimbabwe with both bat and ball, threatened to keep the series alive..

Zimbabwe won the toss and elected to bat first, with stand-in captain Brendan Taylor saying this was so as to reduce scoreboard pressure on the batter. Two changes were made, with Tinashe Kamunhukamwe and Sikandar Raza coming in for the injured Ryan Burl and Timycen Maruma. Bangladesh went with the same team.

Kamunhukamwe departed early, falling for just one.

After that, Zimbabwe’s batters got starts but could not convert. Regis Chakabva, promoted up the order, scored 26, Dion Myers 34 and Sikandar Raza 30. Brendan Taylor was on 46 when he was adjudged hit wicket by TV umpire Langton Rusere. Interpretations of the law from how it happened has created a lot of debate.

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Wessly Madhevere top-scored for Zimbabwe with 54 in their making 240 for the loss of nine wickets, probably a full 30 runs short of their target.

Shoriful Islam took four for 46 and Shakib two for 42.

Having reduced Bangladesh to 75 for the loss of four wickets, Zimbabwe failed to find the killer punch to put the matter to bed.

Shakib had a 55-run partnership with Mahmudullah for the fifth wicket, a handy 28 with Afif Hossain and then an unbeaten 69 with Mohammad Saifuddin.

Zimbabwe could not hold them back and will again be disappointed by their extras column, which had 23, 15 of them wides.

Luke Jongwe took two for 46 from his eight overs. Blessing Muzarabani was one for 31 from 9.1, Richard Ngarava one for 33 from nine. Wessly Madhevere bowled out his 10 overs and took one for 39.

One awesome moment in the match was when Chakabva ran out Mossadek Hossain. After misfielding a wide, the wicketkeeper recovered the ball midway to fine leg and took a shy at the stumps, and the batter was just short.

While the series is done, there are still points to play for as this series forms part of the ICC ODI World Cup Super League qualification path. Zimbabwe currently sit bottom with just 10 points.

The third and final ODI will be played on Tuesday at the same venue, before the two sides turn to a three-match T20I series.