Harare: Zimbabwe defeated Bangladesh by 25 runs in the first ODI match. In the second one-day match at the Harare Cricket Ground on Thursday, Bangladesh faced a battle to save the series. Bangladesh had to win to keep the three-match ODI series alive.
But in the end Zimbabwe won the second match as well. Zimbabwe beat Bangladesh by 13 runs. Along with that, they pocketed the ODI series with one match remaining.
In the fight to save the series, Bangladesh won the toss and decided to field first in the second ODI. Going to bat, the host country Zimbabwe collected 247 runs for 6 wickets. Bangladesh had to score 248 runs to win the match. Bangladesh were all out for 234 with 11 balls to spare.
Bangladesh showed great ball control in the beginning. Zimbabwe lost 4 wickets in just 66 runs and fell under pressure. But then Ben Karan took the lead of the team. Responsible batting. He gave a great century.
After taking Zimbabwe’s sixth wicket for 148 runs, Bangladesh could not sustain the pressure. Sikandar teamed up with Raja Karan to manage the situation. They added 68 runs for the fifth wicket. Madande and Karan’s pair after King’s return and Karan and Brad Evans played important roles for Zimbabwe in the end. Evans changed the picture of the match with aggressive batting towards the end of the innings. He played an unbeaten innings of 58 runs off just 38 balls. His innings had 2 fours and 5 sixes. Ben Curran scored an unbeaten 111 off 135 balls with 9 fours.
Zimbabwe scored 247 runs for 6 wickets in the unbroken seventh wicket partnership of 99 runs by Karan and Evans. Taskin Amed was the most successful with the ball for Bangladesh. He took 2 wickets for 57 runs. Mehdi Hasan Miraj got 2 wickets for 32 runs. Besides, Nahid Rana and Rishad Hossain took one wicket each. In response, Tanjid Hasan and Touhid Hriday fought hard, but Bangladesh lost.
