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BANGLADESH defeated Zimbabwe by 220 runs on the final day of the one-off Test cricket match at Harare Sports Club yesterday.
Offspinner Mehidy Hasan Miraz took the best match figures for a Bangladesh bowler overseas to help dismiss Zimbabwe for 256 and see his side to victory just before tea on the fifth day of the only Test.
Zimbabwe had been set an imposing target of 477 for the win, and made a good start by reaching 110 for one, before the wicket of the experienced Brendan Taylor (92 from 73 balls) started their slide.
They resumed on the fifth morning on 140 for three, but lost four quick wickets when Mehidy (4-66) and Taskin Ahmed (4-82) ripped through the middle-order.
Mehidy’s match figues of 9-148 are the best for a Bangladeshi bowler in an away Test.
“Whether home or away, a win is always a proud thing for me,” Bangladesh captain Mominul Haque said.
“It was a flat wicket, so difficult to get wickets. It was a special performance for his (Mehidy) nine wickets, but it was a team effort.” It is their second victory in Zimbabwe, with the other two away wins both coming in the West Indies in 2009.
“You’ve got to seize those important moments, and we didn’t do that,” Taylor said. “I got out at the wrong time and left some runs out there.
“It was down to being in good positions and throwing that away.”
The teams will now contest a three-match one-day international series starting on Friday, which will be followed by three Twenty20 matches.
Needing to score a world record 477 runs to win, the home team were all out for 256 after resolute resistance from Donald Tiripano and Blessing Muzarabani kept the tourists waiting.
Zimbabwe’s last three wickets took up 34.4 overs, but they had lost four wickets in 19 balls in the day’s first session.
The win – Bangladesh’s fifth overseas victory overall – capped off a fine farewell for Player of the Match Mahmudullah, who announced his retirement from Tests on the third day of the game.
At the start of play yesterday, players gave Mahmudullah a guard of honour and captain Mominul Haque let him lead the team out onto the ground. After being a last-minute inclusion in the XI, Mahmudullah rescued Bangladesh with a first-innings 150 at number eight. He added 191 runs for the ninth wicket with Taskin Ahmed, who made a career-best 75.
The eventuality of the Test was decided when Mehidy Hasan Miraz removed Richard Ngarava to finish with match figures of 9 for 148, the best returns in an overseas Test by a Bangladeshi bowler.
Taskin also took his career-best innings figures of 4 for 82 in Bangladesh’s second dig.
The win – Bangladesh’s first one on foreign soil since 2017, having lost ten out of eleven of those matches — didn’t come easy for them on the final day.
Dion Myers and Tiripano put up a resistance that lasted 17 overs, but the visitors bounced back with a four-wicket burst that signaled a swifter finish to the Test match.
Tiripano found willing allies in Victor Nyauchi and Blessing Muzarabani, who had a hilarious duel with Taskin, giving back the little jig that the Bangladeshi had done on him on the second day. Nyauchi was caught at slip, fending a Taskin bouncer while Ebadat Hossain removed Tiripano for his only wicket in the match.
Bangladesh could have finished matters much earlier had they held on to three chances. Myers was dropped by wicketkeeper Liton Das and first-slip Shakib off Miraz’s bowling, while Taskin grassed Tiripano off his own bowling. Shakib dropped a second chance when Muzarabani edged to him off Miraz.
Miraz, however, eventually removed Myers and Timycen Maruma in the same over before Taskin took the wickets of Roy Kaia and Regis Chakabva as Zimbabwe’s middle-order collapsed.
Bangladesh had staged a spirited fightback in the first innings, before Shakib and Miraz ensured a big lead with their combined nine-wicket haul.
The visitors batted better in the second innings, with Shadman Islam and Najmul Hossain Shanto struck hundreds.
Brendan Taylor made 81 and 92 in a line-up that had none of their experienced batters. Takudzwanashe Kaitano, one of three debutants, made 87 in the first innings. The visitors would have a few things to work on, most notably their bowling against the Zimbabwean lower order that performed admirably. — Cricinfo/SuperSport.com
Online Reporter