Ebadot stars on debut as Tigers avoid whitewash

Bangladesh bowlers finally showed some urgency in the just-concluded ODI series as the visitors picked a convincing 105-run victory against hosts Zimbabwe in the final and third ODI in Harare today.    

However, the win arrived a little too late for the Tigers as the series ended 2-1 in favour of Zimbabwe, who ended their nine-year wait in winning an ODI series against Bangladesh despite missing several of their key players through injury.  

Having successfully chased 304 and 292 in the preceding games, Zimbabwe today had an easier equation in run-chase as Bangladesh fell well short of a commanding total. Needing 257 to win, the home side kept losing at regular intervals and lost six batters, including in-form Sikandar Raza, under fifty runs on board. Eventually the Chevrons were 151 all out in 32.2 overs.

All Bangladesh bowlers were among the wickets and especially impressive was debutant Ebadot Hossain, who scalped two in his ODI career's second over and in the process had removed the dangerman Raza for a golden duck through a brilliant in-swinger at the block hole.

Ebadot did not pick any more wickets but the likes of Mustafizur Rahman helped clean up the tail but not completely as the last batting pair frustrated the visitors by delaying the inevitable with some good hits.

Along the way,  the highest 10th wicket partnership for Zimbabwe in ODIs materialised as well as number ten batter Richard Ngarava scored the innings' highest 34 and remained unbeaten while number eleven batter Victor Nyauchi was the second-highest scorer for Zimbabwe with his 26. Eventually Mustafizur returned to bowl out Nyauchi and grabbed a four-fer, leading to the end of a 58-ball 68-run partnership.

It was a day of redemption for Bangladesh bowlers. Left-arm orthodox spinner Taijul Islam picked two while rookie quick Hasan Mahmud and right-arm off-spinner Mehedi Hasan Miraz scalped one a piece, with the latter duo removing the openers.

Earlier, Bangladesh rode on to a sub-par score of 256 in 50 overs by riding on Afif Hossain Dhrubo's 81-ball 85 and Anamul Haque Bijoy's 71-ball 76. The two shared six maximums among them, and were the only Bangladesh batters to do so, with Bijoy hitting four sixes while Afif tallied two. 

Zimbabwe forced three run outs, with the rest of the wickets involved Brad Evans and Luke Jongwe, who scalped two each but conceded more than six runs per over, while Raza, Ngarava bowled well and had a wicket to their name.