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Don Makanyanga-Sports Reporter
ANOTHER day, another defeat.
The above sums up the performance of the Zimbabwe senior men’s cricket team who suffered a third straight loss in the ongoing T20I series against Bangladesh yesterday.
The nine-run defeat ensured that Bangladesh clinched the five-match series with two matches to spare.
It was another bad day in the office for Zimbabwe’s top order batting line up, with four of the five batters being dismissed for single-digit scores.
After a top order collapse, the tail-end put up a brave fight in the 166-run chase, with Wellington Masakadza and Faraz Akram recording the highest ninth-wicket partnership of 54 runs for Zimbabwe in T20I cricket. They eclipsed the previous record of 31 runs held by Elton Chigumbura and Prosper Utseya.
Zimbabwe captain Sikandar Raza admitted the problems within the top order were their major undoing.
“The fact is that the top five, including myself, have to raise our hands for failure.
“Bangladesh have shown us that one guy can get set and the others can bat around him. The dull look on my face is because the elephant remains in the room. Our batters need to get a lot better,” said Raza in a post-match interview.
For the first time in the series, Zimbabwe won the toss and elected to bowl hoping for a change of fortunes.
But the hosts, having been sent in to bat first, went on to post a competitive score of 165 runs for the loss of five wickets in 20 overs.
Bangladesh wicket-keeper Jaker Ali was the top run getter for the home team, with 44 runs off 34 balls, while Blessing Muzarabani was Zimbabwe’s best bowler with figures of 4-14- 3.
The chase was always going to be tricky for the Chevrons as the Zimbabwe batting order crumbled once again before the tail end put up a fight to try and keep the series alive.
Akram was the top scorer for Zimbabwe after finishing unbeaten on 34 runs from 19 balls, and in the process setting the highest score by a Chevrons’ number 10 batsman.
Only Tadiwanashe Marumani had double figures from the top five batters with 31 runs, while the rest of the other four batters were dismissed for single figures.
Skipper Raza, Brian Bennet, Joylord Gumbie, and Craig Ervine scored, 1, 5,7, and 9 respectively.
Johnathan Campbell was the second-highest score for the Chevrons with 21 runs from 10 balls followed by Masakadza who had 13 runs off 14 balls.
Online Reporter