Chevrons lose series

Blessing Malinganiza in Bulawayo

IN the end, Bangladesh won the T20I series 2-1.

The Chevrons suffered a four-wicket defeat in yesterday’s decider at Queens Sports Club.

And Zimbabwe head coach Justin Sammons blamed poor fielding and an inconsistent batting display.

The hosts, who won the opening match, failed to build on that advantage, allowing Bangladesh to claim the second and last match for a remarkable comeback.

Captain Sikandar Raza elected to bat first, but the hosts were restricted to 143-7, with Dion Myers producing a lone hand of 73 before being run out in the final over.

Bangladesh opener Tanzid Hasan struck an unbeaten 66 off 58 deliveries and shared a decisive 63-run third-wicket partnership with captain Towhid Hridoy to guide the tourists home with two balls remaining.

Brad Evans struck twice late on, but Zimbabwe’s total proved too modest.

Sammons said Zimbabwe had paid the price for failing to convert chances in the field.

“If you are dropping catches like that throughout the series, then you don’t deserve to win the series. That’s the bot-tom line. You have got to be taking the chances,” he said.

The coach, however, absolved his bowling attack of blame, saying the seamers consistently created wicket-taking opportunities throughout the series.

“I thought the bowlers were superb throughout. They’ve created the chances. They kept us in all the games. Certainly, they’re not at fault, but they need to be backed up in the field, which they weren’t,” said Sammons.

Zimbabwe’s batting unit also came under scrutiny after failing to post commanding totals despite promising starts.

“With the bat, we haven’t fired. We’ve had bits and pieces, but we’ve not really clicked as a batting unit. Even in the game we got 170, we probably could have got more,” he said.

Sammons conceded Zimbabwe’s total in the decider left little margin for error.

“This wasn’t going to be enough. It’s below par. Obviously, everything has to go right with the ball, but we believe we can defend. Still, probably 160 in and around there was where we needed to be.”

He identified Zimbabwe’s failure to accelerate at the death as another decisive factor.

“We scored maybe 34 runs in the last five overs. That’s where we laid ourselves down in terms of finishing the innings with the bat,” he said.

Sammons also defended Zimbabwe’s pace-heavy selection, citing the seamers’ dominance throughout Bangladesh’s multi-format tour.

“If you look at the way the series has gone, we take all formats into consideration. We picked up 53 or 54 wickets with our seamers throughout all the games, and only five to spin. In this T20 series specifically, we had 12 with seamers and only two with spinners.”

Despite the T20 setback, Zimbabwe ended the Bangladesh tour with positives after securing a historic Test victory and winning the One-Day International series before falling short in the shortest format.