Bangladesh – 468 and 284-1 declared in 67.4 overs (Najmul Hossain Shanto 117*, Shadman Islam 115*, Saif Hassan 43; Richard Ngarava 1/36)
Zimbabwe – 276 and 256 all out in 94.4 overs (Brendan Taylor 92, Donald Tiripano 52, Blessing Muzarabani 30*; Mehidy Hasan Miraz 4/66, Taskin Ahmed 4/82, Ebadot Hossain 1/39)
Bangladesh won by 220 runs
The gallant Donald Tiripano brought about a good fightback at the end of the Zimbabwe second innings before they went down by 220 runs to Bangladesh in the one-off Test match at Harare Sports Club today.
Tiripano stayed almost to the end to score 52, with help from the last three batsmen in the order, after surviving a disastrous middle-order collapse that saw four wickets go down for only five runs.
Zimbabwe began the day on 140 for three wickets, having been set 478 to win – Dion Myers was on 18 and Tiripano seven.
Bangladesh opened their bowling with their two top spinners, Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Shakib Al Hasan.
On 22, Myers slashed at a ball from Shakib and the wicket-keeper was not able to hold a very difficult chance off a thick top edge.
A few minutes later, Myers, now on 23, drove a low chance back to the bowler, Taskin Ahmed, which also went down.
Tiripano on 18 was also dropped from a low chance to slip, but the drinks break put things right for Bangladesh, as Myers on 26 clipped the first ball afterwards from Mehidy straight to short midwicket to be out without addition; 159 for four.
Timycen Maruma quickly followed him, beaten by the spin and lbw to Mehidy third ball with the score still at 159.
One run later and then a third wicket fell as Roy Kaia also failed to score, another lbw victim to a full-length ball from Taskin, and the score had sunk to 160 for six in two overs.
Worse was to come, as Regis Chakabva, the last recognised batsman to partner Tiripano, scored just a single before a superb ball from Taskin jagged in and uprooted his off stump; 168 for seven.
Play was held up for a while when Tiripano ducked into a short ball from Taskin and was hit on the helmet, and he needed medical checking before play was allowed to continue.
At 170, Victor Nyauchi swung his bat at a ball from Taskin which removed his off stump, but he enjoyed a reprieve as the replay showed this to be a no-ball.
He also survived a confident appeal for a catch at the wicket, and stayed on with Tiripano until lunch time, when the score had reached 176 for seven, with Tiripano on 27 and Nyauchi two.
After the break, Nyauchi settled down much better and, helped by a couple of edged fours, took the score to 198 in another 40 minutes.
Taskin finally broke the stand when he had Nyauchi (10) fending off a bouncer to second slip, where Shakib took a juggling catch.
Blessing Muzarabani pulled a ball from Taskin for four to bring up the 200 on the board, but edged a slip chance, which Shakib dropped this time.
The second new ball was taken, and immediately Tiripano took the single to bring him to his fifty, which came off 125 balls.
Muzarabani continued to use the long arms and the long handle in an entertaining innings, hitting out freely, and the pair put on 41 together.
Then Ebadot Hossain, who had made little impact on the match before now, came on to bowl, and immediately surprised Tiripano with a ball that jagged in to him sharply off the pitch.
On appeal Tiripano was given out for 52, although the replay seemed to show that no contact had been made between bat and ball.
It was an unfortunate end to a fine fighting innings – he faced 144 balls and hit six fours.
Even now the last pair of Muzarabani and Richard Ngarava had a few hits, 10 runs coming off an over from Taskin.
Finally, with the score on 256, Ngarava (10) took a big swing at a tossed-up ball from Mehidy and was comprehensively bowled, leaving Muzarabani not out with 30 – the third-highest score of the innings.
Mehidy finished with four wickets for 66, while Taskin had four for 82.
