Tigers save face with big win
Despite the platform being set for Bangladesh coming into the final day of the second Test, the home side's bowlers needed to put in a clinical approach to stave off embarrassment against Zimbabwe as even a draw would have been enough for the visitors to register their third away Test series win.
And, despite Brendan Taylor hitting back-to-back hundreds in the game, Mehedi Hasan Miraz provided that edge with his fifth five-wicket haul as the tourists were bundled out for 224 by the middle of the second session, securing a 218-run win for the Tigers at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur yesterday.
It was Bangladesh's second-biggest win in terms of runs after their 226-run victory against the same opposition in Chattogram in 2005.
However, when Mehedi dismissed the last Zimbabwe batsman, Kyle Jarvis, the body language from the hosts suggested the feeling was more of relief rather than joy after their 151-run defeat in the first Test in Sylhet.
Chasing a huge 443-run target, Zimbabwe resumed the fifth day on 76 for two and their main aim would have been to bat out the day and finish with a draw.
It proved to be a huge challenge for the bowlers as the Mirpur pitch did not break up as much as expected. However, it was always going to be tough for the batsmen to survive on a surface where the ball had been doing something throughout the Test.
Left-arm pacer Mustafizur Rahman provided the breakthrough -- his only wicket of the game -- with a beautiful delivery that went through left-hander Sean William's defence and struck timber.
Left-arm spinner Taijul Islam then removed Sikandar Raza for 12 by taking a return catch before the post-lunch session became a battle between Mehedi and Taylor.
21-year-old Mehedi, who played the support role with three wickets and hit his second Test half-century in the first innings, began to pluck wickets at regular intervals. On the other hand, Taylor, without any support from the other end, was left fighting alone.
The right-hander eventually reached his sixth Test century off 164 balls, becoming the first Zimbabwean to twice score hundreds in both innings of a Test match. He had previously done it against the same opposition in Harare in 2013.
The 32-year-old held firm at one end, unbeaten on 107 off 167 with the help of 10 fours, but Mehedi's loop and sharp turn was enough to rattle through Zimbabwe's lower-order at the other as they lost their last six wickets for 38 runs before tea.
Man-of-the-series Taijul picked up 18 wickets in the series, falling just one shy of equalling Mehedi's haul of 19 wickets in a series against England in 2016 -- the most by a Bangladeshi bowler in a two-match Test series.
The second Test was significant for Bangladesh in that it was a chance for them to improve on the disastrous batting performances which saw them unable to post more than 200 runs in their last eight innings.
Mushfiqur Rahim's double hundred also elevated him to another level as he became the first Bangladesh player to score two double-tons as well as the first wicketkeeper in the world to achieve the feat.
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