Bangladesh’s winning streak came to an abrupt end when they lost to Zimbabwe by nine runs in the first one-day international of the five-match series in Dhaka on Wednesday.
Amid a free fall of wickets, skipper Sakib al Hasan played a gallant knock to lift the side from an abyss, but his 63 off 65 balls went in vain as Bangladesh were all out for 200 runs chasing a modest target of 210.
Four run-outs contributed hugely to the defeat that came after Bangladesh’s incredible 4-0 series sweep against a far superior opponent New Zealand.
Spinner Abdur Razzak set the tone for Bangladesh restricting Zimbabwe to 209 runs with his 4-41 before the batsmen made a mess facing a mediocre spin attack.
Surprisingly still, the man of the match was a paceman, who varied his pace cleverly to perplex Bangladesh’s some of the best batsmen and claimed three crucial wickets at crucial stages.
Christopher Mpofu, who celebrated his 25th birthday only four days ago, however, started with a belated gift when he had Tamim Iqbal lbw for 23 with a delivery that pitched at least six inches outside the leg-stump.
It ended a 44-run opening stand, though still there was no reason to be panicked as Imrul Kayes was going on happily. His departure for 41 triggered a collapse until a late recovery by Sakib and Mahmudullah.
Mohammad Ashraful smashed a boundary in the first ball he faced only to return to his inconsistent old
self attempting a late cut to be bowled for six.
Junaed was run out next and he was quickly followed by Mushfiqur Rahim and Shorawardi Shuvo. The latter suffered an unnecessary run-out to which Sakib contributed a lot.
Sakib, however, compensated taking the side to 163 from 115-6 before he had lost his partner for a 54-run seventh-wicket stand Mahmuduallah untimely. .
Being impatient after conceding a few dot balls Mahmudullah holed out Mpofu at long-on for 14 giving Zimbabwe the upper hand.
Mashrafee had to sacrifice his wicket for Sakib, who called for a tricky single which was never there and it left Bangladesh wobbling again.
Sakib, who at 52 became the first Bangladeshi to score 1,000 runs in a single ground, still carried some hope and struck a full toss ball of Mpofu through the extra cover for four to make the equation 15 runs from 16 balls.
Mpofu, however, had the last laugh as he changed his pace in the next ball and Sakib was caught off-guard flicking it to short fine-leg for a simple catch.
The sign was ominous from the beginning as Zimbabwe, being asked to bat first, moved to 53 inside 10 overs before three quick wickets by Abdur Razzak in his opening spell settled the things for Bangladesh.
Razzak, who made Chamu Chibhabha his 150th ODI victim later, added another wicket to his tally to return with 4-41. Other spinners assisted him ably as Zimbabwe lost their last five wickets for 25 runs.
