Bangladesh beat Zimbabwe in the second ODI of the five match series at Bulawayo by 49 runs, thanks to a match-winning century by captain Shakib-al-Hasan.
In a game that saw one of the most appalling fielding efforts from both the sides, and specially the hosts, Zimbabwe won the toss and elected to field first. This was probably influenced by the previous game, in which the pitch was relatively more green and hence had something in it for the pace bowlers. this time around though, there wasn’t much assistance for the quick bowlers and almost all batsmen batted as comfortably as they could have.
Junaid Siddique and Mohammad Ashraful got a start but couldn’t kick on, but then Tamim Iqbal smashed a 79, while Shakib’s century and his 96 runs partnership with Raqibul Hasan, that came off only 57 deliveries saw the Bangladeshis pile on a huge total. Despite some hara-kiri in terms of the running between the wickets – there were four run-outs in the innings – Bangladeshis posted an almost match winning total of 320/8 in their fifty overs. Elton Chigumbura was the most successful bowler with 3/59 off his ten.
In reply, the Zimbabweans were always up against the target, and lost wickets at regular interval. Previous game’s 92-scorer, Mark Vermeulen was wrongly adjudged lbw when the ball pitched outside the leg-stump, while the rest capitulated to some fine bowling as the score was 91 when Brendan Taylor was the fourth batsman out.
The bespectacled Charles Coventry then combined with Sean Williams to add 46 runs, before falling for a well-compiled 61 (64 balls), and despite Williams’ finest efforts, it looked like the match was totally out of the hosts’ reach. Chigumbura did his best to help Williams, and in the batting powerplay, 29 runs came off four overs. But by then, Williams’ 75 had been terminated Enamul Haque and with no real support left, the hosts were all out for 271 with four overs to spare.
Shakib’s century combined with his 2/53 won him the man-of-the-match award. Bangladesh now lead the five match series, 2-0.