And the Bangladesh cricketers, playing their first of the five-match one-day series against Zimbabwe at the Bangabandhu National Stadium yesterday, were no exception.

The urgency for enjoying the short break after the gruelling two-match Test series that Habibul Bashar's men won 1-0 was evident when they were set a challenging total of 252 by Zimbabwe.

Batsmen apparently threw their wickets one after another. It all started with opener Nafees Iqbal, fresh from his century in the second and final Test at the same venue, unnecessarily charging down the track to hit Panyangara out of park even after runs were coming thick and fast.

His partner Rajin Saleh played some delightful strokes to race to 40 but paid the price for playing one too many adventurous shot. Skipper Habibul Bashar also started brightly before perishing to self-inflicted pressure.

Not only that Bangladesh players were also in a hurry when it was their turn to bowl after the visiting captain Tatenda Taibu won a good toss and rightly chose to bat. Amazingly, the Tigers finished their quota of 50 overs with 23 minutes still left on the clock. It was certainly a big improvement after their slow over-rate at the same venue during the famous win over India last month.

Bashar's match fee was deducted because of that, but the speed with which Bashar finished his bowling in the Zimbabwe innings, certainly will not earn him any prizes.

Bangladesh eventually ended up 22 runs short of their target thanks to some enterprising knocks from Khaled Mahmud (34 off 30 balls) and Tapas Baishya (30 off 26 balls).

The victory however leaves a big smile on the faces of the inexperienced Zimbabwean side going into the second match at Chittagong on January 24.

For Bangladesh, on the other

hand, the result gives selectors plenty to think about over the holidays especially at the selection of left-arm spinner Abdur Razzak ahead of fellow tweaker Enamul Haque, who was man-of-the-series in the Tests with an amazing 18 wickets.