Mehidy, Taskin takes Bangladesh towards a comprehensive win in a one-off Test against Zimbabwe

Bangladesh seals an easy victory by 220 runs at Harare in a one-off Test against Zimbabwe. Mehidy Hasan and Taskin Ahmed take responsibility on the final day to finish the task.

Zimbabwe started day 5’s play with the fixtures of 140-3 but they still needed 337 runs to reach the target. Zimbabwe’s most experienced batsman, Brendan Taylor scored 92 runs to helped his team get to 140-3 in the second innings against Bangladesh. 

At the start of day 5, Dion Myers and Donald Tiripano were still on the crease and tried to stay on the pitch to set a great deal of partnership. Myers got a new life when Mushfiqur Rahim dropped his catch at 22. Tiripano also got a new life when his second catch dropped at first slip.

But Myer’s new life didn’t go long when Mehidy Hasan took his wicket and sent him to the pavilion to end their 27 runs partnership.

Then, the next batsman, Timycen Maruma came out but Mehidy Hasan also sent him back to the pavilion on a duck.

After Myers wicket, Roy Kaia came next on the crease but his stay was temporary as he followed his partner on the way to the pavilion after scoring a duck.

Zimbabwe kept losing their wickets and went on to their knees. Taskin Ahmed was also in a good mood to destroy the batting order of Zimbabwe as he took continuous wickets.

After session 1 of Day 5, Bangladesh was 3 wickets away from the win.

Taskin Ahmad picked up his fourth when Shakib Al Hasan seized Victor M Nyauchi in the slips to reduce Zimbabwe to eight wickets.

After Nyauchi’s wicket, Bangladesh patience was tested in an 82 ball stand for the second last wicket between Blessing Muzarabani and Tiripano.

Ebadat took the wicket and broke the second last wicket partnership between Muzarabani and Tiripano. He also registered his wicket.

Mehidy Hasan took the last wicket by stumps down to claim his ninth wicket of the match.

Bangladesh beat Zimbabwe by 220 runs in the one-off test in Harare and player of the match Mahmudullah ended his Test career with a farewell.

“I think winning this test match would inspire everyone for the next edition of the Test Championship, as this win will help us in building confidence. I hope everyone in our team will understand their playing role and improve the process we would like to maintain.. that we failed to do so on different occasions,”

Mominul Haque said.

“It’s his (Mahmudullah) personal decision and it is very difficult for me to comment and more so I am not aware of it. As a young Captain, it is certainly disappointing (that Mahmudullah is retiring), and if that is not the case then it’s unusual,”

he said.

“It is unfortunate that we couldn’t get a good total in the first innings. There are a lot of positives that come out of this game. Guys tried to score some runs and build partnerships by putting their heads down. But we should work hard on our batting and make sure that we don’t play catch-up cricket in a Test match,”

Tiripano said.

Brief scores: Bangladesh 468 (Mahmudullah 150, Liton Das 95; Blessing Muzarabani 4-94) & 284/1 decl. (Najmul Hossain Shanto 117*, Shadman Islam 115*) beat Zimbabwe 276 (Takudzwanashe Kaitano 87, Brendan Taylor 81; Mehidy Hasan 5-82, Shakib Al Hasan 4-82) & 256 (Brendon Taylor 92, Donald Tiripano 52; Mehidy Hasan 4-66, Taskin Ahmed 4-82) by 220 runs.