The Bangladesh Cricket Board XI gave Zimbabwe a lesson of what they should expect in the five-match series winning the lone warm-up match by 29 runs at the BKSP on Monday.
Young leg-spinner Nur Hossain produced a magic spell and 20-year-old BKSP boy Asif Ahmed, an off-spinner with high promise, aided him with 2-22 as the BCB XI restricted the visitors to 194 runs in 46.1 overs after they put 223-9 on the board.
Nur ripped the heart out of Zimbabwe middle-order taking three wickets for 40 runs before Asif struck in successive overs to end a 53-run stand between Keegan Meth (25) and Prosper Utseya (26) and take the match away from Zimbabwe’s grip.
Syed Rasel handed Hamilton Masakadza a third-ball duck while Alauddin Babu scalped Brendon Taylor for 17 as the BCB XI took the upper hand from the beginning of Zimbabwe innings.
Chamu Chibhabha (33) and Tatenda Taibu (32) steadied the ship but both of them fell to Nur Hossain, who produced a sharp turn on a slow and low BKSP wicket. Nur also dismissed skipper Elton Chigumbura (12), who was caught brilliantly by Shahriar Nafees at first slip.
Marshal Ayub accomplished the win with a direct throw from the cover that saw Raymond Price run out for six with Graeme Cremer left stranded on 21 at the other end.
Earlier, opting to bat first, the BCB XI struggled against disciplined pace bowling from Meth and Christopher Mpofu and were left reeling at 52-4 at one stage.
Asif (46) came to their rescue and he was later joined by wicketkeeper Sahgir Hossain (49) to give the innings some respectability. They added a valuable 54 runs in the fifth-wicket stand.
The BCB XI skipper Shahriar Nafees hoped this win will set the stage for Bangladesh, though Zimbabwe did not give it much significance.
‘We set up the stage and hopefully Bangladesh will make it 5-0 against Zimbabwe,’ Shahriar told the reporters.
Zimbabwe coach Allan Butcher hoped it will have no impact on the series.
‘We are not worried as we wanted to try our players in the match,’ he said.
