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DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Bangladesh is wary of complacency against Zimbabwe as it heads into a three-match one-day international series starting today.
Bangladesh has won four straight one-day international (ODI) series, including over Pakistan, India and South Africa. The run began with a five-match whitewash of Zimbabwe last December, and includes reaching the quarter-finals of the Cricket World Cup for the first time.
“Everyone is expecting a whitewash obviously,” Bangladesh captain Mashrafe Bin Mortaza said yesterday. “But it won’t be right to talk about this amongst our players.”
He said that Zimbabwe’s seven-wicket win over a Bangladesh Cricket Board XI on Thursday, when Zimbabwe chased down 277 with 20 balls to spare, was enough of a warning for the national team.
“I am concerned that we lost the match yesterday,” Mortaza, who played, said. “The way they chased 280, they batted very well, so there is no scope to take them lightly.”
The first match will be key to setting up the series, he added.
“Your nerves and everything else depends on the first match,” he said. “After that goes, everything becomes easier.”
Mortaza was run out for 1 and took no wickets in seven overs in the warm-up match. He said he was still recovering from dengue fever, and hoped to play in the first ODI.
“I am still not 100 percent fit,” he said. “It would be good if I could train more or recover more. Whenever I play for Bangladesh and I feel that I can play, I take that risk. I am hopeful to survive.”
For Zimbabwe, the warm-up win was a morale booster after a series defeat against ICC associate Afghanistan.
“It is a good start. If we are to compare it to the last time we were here, we didn’t win even the warm-up game,” captain Elton Chigumbura said.
“We just have to make sure what we did yesterday, we do not change too much.
“Bangladesh is a good team at home. We will come hard and we will have to play our best cricket.” – AP
Online Reporter