Sports Reporter
Bangladesh will meet Zimbabwe today in the first match of the three-match Grameenphone ODI Series at the Mirpur Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium. The match starts at 9.00 AM.
Bangladesh Television will telecast the match live from the stadium.
Before today’s encounter, Bangladesh faced Zimbabwe in 34 ODI matches. Of them, Zimbabwe registered 19 wins over Bangladesh while Bangladesh won in 15 affairs.
Zimbabwe started their Bangladesh campaign on an auspicious note as the African side thrashed BCB-GP National Cricket Academy by 195 runs inthe practice three-dayer match at the Shaheed Chandu Stadium in Bogra on January 8.
Later, Zimbabwe defeated Bangladesh by 38 runs in the opening match of the Grameenphone Tri-Nation Cup at the Mirpur Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium on January 10.
On the other hand, spirited Bangladesh defeated mighty Sri Lanka by five wickets in their league match of the Tri-Nation Tournament and stormed into the final on January 14.
Sri Lanka also cruised into the final and clinched the championship title beating Bangladsh by two wickets in a hard-fought final on January 16 at the same venue.
Zimbabwe failed to reach the final.
Mohammad Ashraful, the captain of Bangladesh team, said , “I hope we will be able to whitewash Zimbabwe 3-0 in the series. If our three departments (bowling, batting, fielding) perform well. we shall bring our expected result. I am expecting that the batsmen of my team will hit at least three centuries.”
On the other hand, skipper of Zimbabwe Prosper Utseya said, “We want to win the series. We will be competitive like the Tri-Nation series, which concluded recently.”
Bangladesh will take on Zimbabwe in the second ODI on January 21 at the same venue and the hosts will face the tourists in the third and last ODI on January 23 at the same venue.
Courtesy: nation.ittefaq.com
