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The home team, who were coming from impressive wins over the Asians and neighbours South Africa in their opening two games, won the toss and as has been their custom, elected to bat first.
Masakadza’s 56 runs in a 54 ball-knock were again the highlight of Zimbabwe’s innings as they trudged their way to a modest 149/8 in their allotted 20 overs, with wickets tumbling at regular intervals.
The target was never going to be too challenging for the Bangladeshis, who were looking for their first win of the series to keep alive their hopes of playing in Sunday’s final after losing their first two games.
Bangladesh comfortably coasted to 153 runs for the loss of four wickets with 16 balls to spare in response.
Zimbabwe did not have the best of starts yesterday and after losing Vusi Sibanda (12) and skipper Brendan Taylor (27), the middle order didn’t do much to help their cause.
The tourists, who were good in the field,struck early when Sibanda was run out in a failed bid to force a single with Masakadza after 3,2 overs as the scoreboard was still displaying 22 runs for the opening partnership.
Masakadza and Taylor then added 48 runs for the third wicket.
The skipper came on with a few big blows to boost the run rate but his stay was to be shortlived when after sending the ball for two sixes in succession, was caught by Mahmudullah of the bowling of Ziaur Rahman.
He was disappointed by the way he perished and had every reason to be because that was tantamount to gifting his wicket.
Zimbabwe were 74/3 when middle order batsman, Craig Ervine, who is having a nightmare with the bat, was clean bowled Mahmudullah for a golden duck after facing just one ball in the 10th over.
But Stuart Matsikenyeri (27 off 23 balls) combined with Masakadza to push the scores to 124 in a 50-run partnership.
Masakadza, who scored 62 and 55 in the last two games, yesterday struck four fours and a six.
Man-of-the-match Mashrafe Mortaza took 228, including Masakadza’s prized wicket, after forcing an outside edge to wicketkeeper Mushfiqur Rahim.
Bangladesh made one change to their team yesterday bringing back Tamim Iqbal (13) to open the innings with Mohammad Ashraful (19 from 10) although the stand did not last long.
Despite suffering the setback of losing the pair early on, the tourists still managed to keep their heads high and managed to beat the target courtesy of a 54-run fifth wicket partnership between top scorer Nasir Hossain (41) and Mahmudullah (29).
Kyle Jarvis, despite conceding 44 from his four overs, and Graeme Cremer (130), took one wicket each.
Zimbabwe captain Taylor conceded defeat and said they are now looking forward to the next game against South Africa tomorrow.
“We lost too many wickets when we were batting. It was hard to come back from that.
“Coming in with good spinners like Bangladesh have, it was never going to be easy and the middle order didn’t have the match time in the middle.
“We just missed everything, they deserved the win. They were more up for it than us.
“We really tried to gear ourselves up today but we knew they would bounce back.
“We’ve got some important cricket to play on Saturday,” said Taylor.
Bangladesh will play South Africa this afternoon, looking for nothing short of victory, to boost their chances of making the final.
Online Reporter
Bongani Ndlovu