Zimbabwe Cricket will have to hope that long time rivals, Bangladesh , will beat Sri Lanka in the 6th game of the Tri-Series currently underway in the subcontinent after they lost by 91 runs to the Tigers yesterday.
Speaking after the match , Zimbabwe fast bowler Kyle Jarvis said the Chevrons would now have to rely on the home side to beat Sri Lanka by a certain margin to ensure that Zimbabwe go through, and that this wait for someone else to do their job wasn’t desirable.
“The way Tamim and Shakib batted, hitting the ball along the ground and gave themselves a chance. They got some runs. That’s what we needed,” Jarvis said.
“We needed two or three batters to get in and give themselves a chance. We let ourselves down big time, we should never have been bowled out for 125.
“The moment you lose three early wickets, it is going to be The Zimbabwe batsmen could have simply emulated what Bangladesh’s experienced duo of Shakib Al Hasan and Tamim Iqbal did in their approach to chasing 217 runs,” said Jarvis.
Instead, Zimbabwe were bowled out for 125, which left their path to the tri-series final in the hands of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka..
The pitch wasn’t conducive to stroke-making as was evident by more boundary droughts throughout the game. But Zimbabwe lost four wickets in the first 10 overs, after Sikandar Raza tried hard to single-handedly bring the chase back in order.
When he was eighth out, the chase was effectively over.
Bangladesh’s spinners and medium-pacers combined impressively to bowl Zimbabwe out in 36.3 overs, helping their side to a third consecutive win with a bonus point.
This was Bangladesh’s lowest total in a win against Zimbabwe. The win was also Mashrafe Mortaza’s 30th as Bangladesh captain, making him the most successful in terms of wins. He overtook Habibul Bashar’s 29 wins.
Shakib Al Hasan took three wickets, like he had in the two previous games, while there were two each for Mortaza, Sunzamul Islam and Mustafizur Rahman.
Shakib made a fifty in the first innings as well, adding 106 for the second wicket with Man of the Match Tamim Iqbal, who scored his third fifty in a row.
Mashrafe and Shakib hurt Zimbabwe’s chances by taking four wickets in the first 10 overs. Hamilton Masakadza edged Mashrafe to Sabbir Rahman in the fourth over before Shakib dismissed Solomon Mire and Brendan Taylor off successive balls in the seventh over.
Mire had missed a long-hop that kept low, while Taylor played back to a fullish delivery first ball to be trapped in front.
Craig Ervine’s poor form continued when he edged Mashrafe to slip, for the third time in a row, where Sabbir took a sharp catch. His 11 in this innings took him to 15 runs in four innings in the tri-series.
Sikandar Raza and Peter Moor held back the home bowlers for 13.1 overs, but Sunzamul Islam struck two blows in as many deliveries in the 23rd over. Moor and Malcolm Waller were both given out leg-before, with the latter using up the review.
Raza and Cremer tried mending the situation for a while but that didn’t last long either. Raza, who had struck two fours and a dismissive six during the steady fall of wickets, hammered Mustafizur down the ground for his fourth boundary before playing on to his stumps in the same over to end all hopes for Zimbabwe.
Shakib added a third before Mustafizur closed out the innings.
