Tigers tame sorry Zim
Bangladesh trounced a careless Zimbabwe by four wickets in the third one-day international at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium yesterday to wrest a 2-1 advantage in the five-match series.
A blitzkrieg knock from Tamim Iqbal, who smashed ten fours and two sixes in his 72-ball 80, and a well-composed half-century by Mohammad Ashraful, 63 in 91 balls, took the Tigers to 198 for six in 40.4 overs. They were chasing a paltry Zimbabwe total of 196 that was made in 41.1 overs after the hosts had won the toss for the first time in the series.
Indeed it was an easy victory in the end for the home side, who were upset by five wickets in the first match, but that did not happen before a late-innings wobble that delayed the inevitable.
When Tamim and Ashraful and then Ashraful and Rokibul Hasan were building up partnerships, the win appeared closer. But when former captain Ashraful departed at the start of the 33rd over with the victory only 22 runs away, three wickets fell for just 19 runs and it took them another 8.3 overs to score the remaining runs.
But the most interesting part of the third game under lights at Mirpur was the home side's strategy of fielding five spinners at the expense of one pace bowler; a funny decision to many. One may say what's wrong with the plan when they could keep their opponents below the 200-run mark and as it's well established that their southern African opponents are weak against the slow bowlers.
It was however not the spinners who caused the doom, rather the madness of the Zimbabwe batsmen who spoiled a good chance to put up a fighting total on the board. And then again the question could be raised; why the selectors picked four pacers in the side for the first three games when they are well aware about the weakness of their opponents?
There is nothing wrong if someone takes the home advantage but it seems that the Bangladesh think-tank has had the intention to test their batsmen on the sporting wicket against a team like Zimbabwe to tune up the team and find out the right combination ahead of a tough challenge in their next assignment in the tri-nation tournament involving India and Sri Lanka.
But everything has changed and apparently the think-tank went into the shell after the team's defeat in the first game although everybody in the team admitted that poor-top order batting was the main reason behind the heartbreaking defeat at the same venue.
True, the performance of the pace bowlers in the first two games in absence of spearhead Mashrafe Bin Mortaza and one-day specialist Syed Rasel was pathetic and a real concern for the team management, but it was funny to see the way they solved this problem.
Without any doubt it was the best opportunity for the team to give the young pace bowlers a chance to find their feet against these opponents to make sure they can get the confidence to play in the bigger games when it's uncertain for the team to get the services of the experienced pace duo due to injuries.
And above everything a team like Bangladesh can't play with such an unusual bowling attack. It could be suicidal for the team in terms of finding the right combination.
It could have been an embarrassing decision for the team management after the way Hamilton Masakadza and Charles Coventry started to punish the spinners including captain Shakib Al Hasan and Abdur Razzak in the second wicket stand.
Zimbabwe, however, lost the way once Coventry fell victim to left-arm spinner Enamul Haque. Coventry managed a top-edge which was taken comfortably by Nayeem Islam at midwicket.
Shakib kept changing his bowlers and the Zimbabwe batters kept falling playing bad shots. Stand-in skipper Masakadza missed his deserved hundred for only 16 runs as the right-hander played a tamed pull-shot against Razzak to find the safe hands of Rokibul at midwicket.
Pacer Nazmul Hossain returned the best figures of 3-13 in 4.1 overs while Enamul took three wickets for 45 runs in his 10-over spell.
Comments