First Test Vs Bangladesh
Final Result - Zimbabwe win by 36 runs
1st Innings
Zimbabwe - 204
Vermeulen - 48
Price - 43
Wishart - 32
Mashrafe - 4/25
Rafique - 4/85
The 1st innings started off terribly for Zimbabwe with Ebrahim losing his wicket on the 2nd ball of the morning, leaving the visitors 1 down without scoring. This set the tone for the rest of the innings for the Zimbabweans, losing wickets on a regular basis. 5 of the Zimbabwe batsmen got past 20 and looked set to make a few runs before throwing away their wickets to poor shots. The only highlight for Zimbabwe was how their tail wagged. The last 2 wickets put on 65 runs to make it a more respectable total. Nothing can be taken away from the Bangladesh bowlers, in particular Mashrafe who bowled an excellent line and length.
2nd Innings
Bangladesh - 276
Mohammad Ashraful - 77
Habibal Bashar - 60
Alok Kapali - 55
Hondo - 3/64
Price - 3/73
The Bangladesh batting followed very much the same suit as the Zimbabwe batting, losing wickets on a fairly regular basis bar one partnership. This was the 3rd wicket partnbership between Ashraful and Bashar, the pair put on 138 together. The two looked in good form but the partnership ended when Bashar threw away his wicket in a terrible decision which saw him run out. Bangladesh managed to claw their way to 276 thanks to Kapali's 50 which helped keep one end scoring while the wickets feel consistently at the other end.
3rd Innings
Zimbabwe - 444
Vermeulen - 90
Blignaut - 59
Ervine - 55
Ebrahim - 47
Flower - 44
Price - 40
Mahmud - 4/145
Rafique - 3/58
Zimbabwe's start to their 2nd innings was a huge improvement to the 1st innings start. Ebrahim and Vermuelen put on 93 for the 1st wicket, the partnership helping them erase their 1st innings deficit. Zimbabwe were 2/125 when Grant Flower strode out to the crease. Flower managed to hit 8 four in 8 successive balls he faced. Out of the 51 score in the 3rd wicket partnership, Flower scored 44 of them. Vermeulen looked in excellent touch with the bat working his way to a well made 90 until he edged a ball onto his pads that deflected back onto the stumps. Zimbabwe's tail again put on a few runs with Ervine and Blignaut both scoring 50s and Price scoring 40 runs, which helped Zimbabwe to 444 and a 372 run lead.
4th Innings
Bangladesh - 336
Sarkar - 82
Mashud - 64
Bashar - 62
Hondo - 5/85
Bangladesh made a pretty good attempt at hauling in the 373 runsthey needed for victory. Bashar and Sarkar put Bangladesh well on the right track to make the runs before their partnership was broken leaving the score on 2/141. Again like the first innings wickets fell on a regular basis except this time the partnerships were a little more valuable. Bangladesh left themselves well within striking distance with their total on 7/331. Then Streak introduced Hondo back into the bowling attack and he managed to clean up the last 3 wickets for only 5 runs giving him a 5 wicket haul for the innings.
Overall Report
A very close and well contested game between the two cellar dwellers of Test cricket. The game swung both ways, with Bangladesh being in front early in the match when Zimbabwe were in trouble at 8/139. But when Zimbabwe scored 444 in their 2nd innings, leaving Bangladesh with a rather large total to score in the last inngings, left Zimbabwe in favour of taking out the match.
MOTM
Douglas Hondo - In a game that didn't see any standout performances but a large number of good performances, Hondo's 5/85 and taking those last 3 wickets of the match a a crucial time was what earned him the MOTM award.
