Online Reporter
Tinashe Kusema
Zimpapers Sports Hub
HOSTS Zimbabwe wrapped up an historic innings-and-85-run victory over Bangladesh inside 47 overs on the final day of their cricket Test at Harare Sports Club yesterday.
It is Zimbabwe’s largest Test win by margin and the first time the Chevrons have recorded back-to-back Test series victories.
They beat Afghanistan by an innings and 75 runs in Harare last October.
Yesterday it took a total of 47 overs for Zimbabwe to wrap up the One-off Test against the Asians.
It was a day of many firsts for Zimbabwe as the Chevrons cruised to their biggest Test win to date.
Zimbabwe’s seamers were front and centre of the big win with Blessing Muzarabani taking four wickets while Test skipper Richard Ngarava, Newman Nyamhuri and Brad Evans chipped in with three, two and a wicket respectively.
While Muzarabani was denied a well-deserved fiver-for, he will probably find solace in the fact that his six wickets during this Test moved him up to third on the ladder of Zimbabwe’s top Test wicket-takers, dislodging Paul Strang in the process.
The late Heath Streak still stands head and shoulders above the rest with 216 wickets while Ray Price and now Muzarabani are chasing with 80 and 73 wickets respectively.
Bangladesh began the day with so much hope and anticipation as the duo of Mahmudul Hasan Joy and Mominul Haque were on 40 for one and looked to build a partnership that would eat away at the 230-run deficit.
Unfortunately, that hope was soon snuffed out as Muzarabani got the early breakthrough in the second over of the day when he had Joy caught by Brian Bennett at gully after the two had only added a single run.
That set off an avalanche of wickets as Zimbabwe’s four-men front-line pace attack soon got in on the act.
Wickets fell at regular intervals, with the only resistance coming from a fourth-wicket stand by Mushfiqur Rahim and Najmul Hossain, who put up 61 runs off 90.
Muzarabani once again came up with the breakthrough when Rahim edged his delivery to Tafadzwa Tsiga behind the stumps.
From that point onwards, it became a matter of when and not if Zimbabwe would wrap things up yesterday, as each time Bangladesh batters tried to get going, one of the Chevrons’ seamers would thwart them.
Taijul Islam and Amite Hasan combined for a 34-run off 44 balls before Evans removed the former for eight runs when he nudged one to Tsiga behind the stumps again.
Skipper Ngarava would also remove Hasan for 25 runs when he nudged one to Brian Bennett at second slip.
Earlier on, Nyamhuri had removed Bangladesh skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto when he clean-bowled him for 30 runs.
Rahim would go on to top-score for Bangladesh with his 34 runs off 62 balls, while Shanto and Hasan chipped in with 30 runs off 41 balls and a run-a-ball 25, respectively.
Speaking after the match, Zimbabwe skipper Ngarava was elated and very much relieved to kick-off his tenure with not just a win but a historic one.
“To be honest, as I walked into this Test match (on Sunday), there was one thing on my mind, and that was making history,” said Ngarava.
“Zimbabwe have never won back-to-back Test series or any other series, so it’s quite special to be winning a back-to-back series,” he said.
The Chevrons skipper reserved special praise for his seam attack after yet another Test series-winning performance.
“I think we’ve got a nice pack of bowlers, champion bowlers,” he said.
“They always show up and, of course, we are now starting to see the hard work the boys have put in pay dividends.
With the Test match done and dusted, the series now moves to the One Day International.
The two sides will meet in three ODIs, scheduled for July 6-11 at Harare Sports Club.
After that, the two teams will then move to Bulawayo for three T20s, on July 17-19, at Queens Sports Club.
