Mar 12,2020
Dominant Tigers complete unique treble
Bangladesh players celebrate with the series trophy after defeating Zimbabwe in the second and final Twenty20 international match a at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium on Wednesday. — New Age photo
Opener Liton Das maintained his brilliant form with yet another fifty as Bangladesh thrashed Zimbabwe by nine wickets in the second Twenty20 international to clinch the two-match series 2-0 in Dhaka on Wednesday.
Liton hit an unbeaten 60 off 45 balls, his second fifty in as many matches, which followed two hundreds in the preceding one-day international series, as Bangladesh made light work of Zimbabwe bowling to reach 120-1 in 15.5 overs after restricting the side to 119-7.
Set a modest target, Liton who struck eight fours, put 77 runs with Mohammad Naim for the opening stand to take the excitement out of the contest.
Replacing Tamim Iqbal in the starting line-up, Naim played a relatively sedate innings before he became the only batsman to be dismissed in the Bangladesh innings.
Tinashe Kamunhukamwe took the catch at mid-wicket off Chris Mpofu as Naim fell for 33 off 34 to give Zimbabwe something to cherish in an otherwise lopsided contest.
One-down Soumya Sarkar, 20 not out, finished the game off without further trouble as Bangladesh reached their target with 25 balls to spare to complete an unprecedented treble against an opponent in Test, one-day international and Twenty20 series.
Bangladesh won the preceding one-day international series 3-0 and one-off Test by an innings and 106 runs.
Former Zimbabwe skipper Brendan Taylor earlier showed some form for the first time in the series to stay unbeaten on 59 off 48 balls.
But Bangladesh bowlers did their job to perfection by maintaining pressure to set up the base for the record feat.
Taylor, whose previous highest was 17 in the series, anchored the Zimbabwe innings after Al-Amin Hossain dismissed Kamunhukamwe early for 10.
He put 57 runs with Craig Ervine for the second wicket but consumed way too many balls and the bowlers took full advantage of it.
The Tigers struck at regular intervals after Afif Hossain broke the stubborn partnership by removing Ervine, who made 29. The pressure to increase the run-rate made the next Zimbabwe batsmen err as Sean Williams and Sikandar Raza fell for three and 12 runs respectively.
With Donald Tiripano absent, Zimbabwe lacked the firepower in the lower-order, forcing Taylor to carry their innings alone.
But the free fall of wickets at the other end did not help him as Al-Amin scalped Richmond Mutumbami for one while Mustafizur Rahman dismissed Tinotenda Mutombodzi (3) and Wesley Madhevere (1) in the same over.
Zimbabwe had to remain content with just 34 runs in the last five overs despite entering the phase on 85-3.
Al-Amim finished with 2-22 while Mustafiz claimed 2-25.
