Bangladesh clinch ODI series

Bangladesh clinch the Grameenphone ODI Series 2-1 when the Tigers crushed Zimbabwe by six wickets in the third and final ODI match at the Mirpur Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium on Friday.

Zimbabwe beat Bangladesh by two wickets in the first ODI on January 19.

Later, the Tigers took the sweet revenge over the African side defeating the tourists by six wickets in the second ODI on January 23.

The match was fixed 37-over-a-side affair due to foggy weather.

Chasing Zimbabwe’s 119 for the loss of nine wickets in 37 overs, Bangladesh overhauled the winning taeget in 32.4 overs making 121 for the loss of four wickets.

Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, the country’s best medium pacer, prolific all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan and

spinner Mahmudullah Riad played the key role to restrict the African side to a modest total.

Mashrafe completed at 3/26 and Shakib Al Hasan finished at 3/15 while Mahmudullah Riad chipped in with two wickets for 17 runs.

Sean Williams of Zimbabwe top-scored with 38 before he was cleanly bowled by Mahmudullah Riad. Williams hit five fours in his 46-ball knock.

Besides, Keith Dabengwa remained undefeated with 21.

Mashrafe Bin Mortaza gave his team early breakthrough as the medium pacer trapped lbw opener Vusimusi Sibanda for a duck. Then, Hamilton Masakadza, the other opener was caught at the first slip by Mehrab Hossain (Junior) off Mashrafe for just 10 runs.

Mashrafe struck again as he cleanly bowled one down Stuart Matsikenyeri for 10 runs.

Mashrafe Bin Mortaza was adjudged the Man of the Match.

Shakib Al Hasan, who is now the world number one ODI all-rounder according to the ICC ranking was adjudged the player of the series. Shakib harpooned six wickets in three matches and scored seventy runs.

Opener Tamim Iqbal and Mehrab Hossain (Junior) added together 38 runs in the opening stand before Mehrab was unfortunately run out by Sibanda scoring two.

Opener Tamim Iqbal hit a worthy 34 off 49 balls amid five strokes beyond the ropes.

Skipper Mohammad Ashraful again showed a poor batting performance. He was trapped lbw by Raymond Price scoring just three runs. His five previous scores are 18, 26,13, 4 and 5.

After dismissal of Ashraful, Raqibul Hasan came to the crease but his innings was short-lived as Raqibul was trapped lbw by Raymond Price scoring 14. At that time the board was giving a reading of 89 for the loss of four wickets.

Later, Shakib Al Hasan and Mushfiqur Rahim contributed a valuable 32 runs in their unbroken fourth wicket stand and powered their side to reach the winning spot.

Shakib Al Hasan cracked an undefeated 33 off 36 balls including four fours while wicketkeeper-batsman Mushfiqur Rahim hit 20 (not out ) off 31 balls with three boundaries.

Raymond Price bagged a couple of wickets giving away nine runs.

Source: The New Nation