Bangladesh suffered one of their biggest humiliations to date when they crashed to a 335-run defeat against Zimbabwe inside four days in
the first Test at the Harare Sports Club on Saturday.
Set a world record target of 483 runs in more than five sessions, the Tigers had their chance to create history or at least put up a fight but they were unable to do either.
The visitors collapsed to 147 all out in their second innings doing only a little better than their shocking first innings total when they were dismissed for 134 runs.
Bangladesh were expected to win this Test match after going to Zimbabwe as favourites after a successful series in Sri Lanka where they drew a Test match and lost the other one by a close margin.
Even in their worst nightmare Bangladesh could not imagine what was waiting for them in Zimbabwe, a country that had been grappling with so many problems.
They won a very good toss, started the match the way they had expected and despite some controversial umpiring and a heroic innings of Zimbabwe captain Brandan Taylor, had restricted the hosts to a reasonable total.
But an inexplicable first innings batting, which had clearly two parts, saw Bangladesh lose their control and braced for a humiliation which they could not avoid despite a brave effort by paceman Robiul Islam.
‘After winning the toss, I thought we bowled well but we didn’t hold on to our catches in the first innings,’ said skipper Mushfiqur Rahim. ‘Maybe we did a mistake in that area [not playing a third seamer], but we should have held the catches.
‘We are capable of scoring big runs, we have a couple of days and hopefully we will come back strongly.’
Robiul grabbed 6-71 in the second innings but Zimbabwe still managed to put on 227-7, riding on an unbeaten 102 from Taylor, who has become only the third Zimbabwean to get a century in each innings of a Test after the Flower brothers.
The home side batted only eight overs in the morning and added 40 runs to their overnight 187-7 before declaring their inning with Taylor completing his second century of the game.
All that the Tigers could do was to see off a session or two before deciding which way to go forward but they lacked any ambition and came out to bat in their second innings without any visible plan.
Shahriar Nafees (11) had his off-stump uprooted by Kyle Jervis before Jahirul Islam became the victim of a dubious caught behind decision for 22.
An out-of-sorts Mahmudullah gave a catch to substitute fielder Sean Williams at deep midwicket and Sakib al Hasan soon completed his ordinary comeback to Test cricket having been caught by Vusi Sibanada off Jervis at gully for four.
The Tigers stared at a defeat on the fourth day when Mushfiqur Rahim was spectacularly caught by his counterpart by Taylor at slip for three.
The procession at the other end perhaps left the brain of Mohammad Ashraful freezing which was evident in his run-out for 40, the highest for the visitors in the second innings.
There was no fightback too from Nasir Hossain, who perished for 23 as Bangladesh folded their innings in 49.2 overs.
BRIEF SCORES
First Test
Zimbabwe 389 & 227-7 dec (B Taylor 102 not out, G Cremer 43, K Meth 31 not out, E Chigumbura 27; R Islam 6-71) v Bangladesh 134 & 147 (M Ashraful 40, N Hossain 23, J Islam 22, Mahmudullah 21; G Cremer 4-4, K Jarvis 3-75)
Result: Zimbabwe won by 335 runs
Man of the match: B Taylor (ZIM)
-With New Age input
