Bangladesh 126 (Tanzid 67*, Towhid 33*) bits for 2 people Zimbabwe 124 (Madande 43, Taskin 3-14, Saifuddin 3-15) with 8 wickets.
Zimbabwe’s 124 was their lowest total against Bangladesh. The previous low was 131 in 2015. But it could have gone lower had he fallen to 7-for-41. Taskin Ahmed and the returning Mohammad Saifuddin took three wickets each while Mahedi Hasan bowled economically to take two. scalp.
Bennett’s bright start
Zimbabwe collapse
Taskin Ahmed’s first over, packed with speeds of over 140kph, was a sign for Zimbabwe’s next half hour. Bennett and his debutant Joylord Gumbie struggled to connect with most of their deliveries, but their next dismissal was a soft one off Mohammad Saifuddin. Gumbie swerved awkwardly at a misdirected delivery down the leg side and was simply caught at short fine leg by Taskin.
Bennett was run out off the first ball of the sixth over and Mahedi Hasan dismissed Zimbabwe captain Sikandar Raza for a golden duck. Raza, attempting a lap sweep, let the catch slip. Three wickets fell in three balls and Taskin dismissed Sean Williams and Ryan Burl with the first two deliveries of the seventh over. When Saifuddin got Juke Jongwe out for two, Zimbabwe went from 36 to 41 for 7 with 7 off 17 balls.
Record stands in Madande and Masakadza
Muzarabani exquisite beginning turns sour
Muzarabani’s blessing gave Zimbabwe the perfect start to their defense of 124 as they took the second ball to Scissors through forward pressure from Ritten Das. Litton’s white-ball misery continued with scores of 0, 36, 7, 0, 0 and now 1 in 2024.
However, in his next over, Muzarabani first collided with wicketkeeper Gumbie as Tanzid was skiing. The ball was higher than the batsman, but Muzarabani wandered close to the advancing Gumbie, and the wicketkeeper crashed and dropped the catch.
Later, Bennett dropped a sitter into the cover of Tanzid, who was on 4 at the time. In Muzarabani’s next over, Tanzid further compounded the bowler’s disappointment by smashing two sixes and a four through midwicket.
Tanzid cashes out
It took 14 balls for Tanzid to score his first boundary on his T20I debut, but the left-hander looked more comfortable as he approached Muzarabani in the sixth over. After the second rain, Tanzid hit a couple of fours off Luke Jongwe and another pair to take him close to 50 runs.
Bangladesh lost Najmul Hossain Shanto for 21 in the 10th over, but Tanzid had more luck. He got his third life when Gumbie dropped him for the second time at number 56. Towhid Hridoy hit Ainsley Ndlovu, who came on as Masakadza’s concussion replacement, for 15 runs in his first over. Hridoy not out on 33 off 18 balls while Tanzid used 28 balls in the chase to secure victory.
Mohammad Isam is ESPNcricinfo’s Bangladesh correspondent. @isam84
