Bangladesh trounced a careless Zimbabwe by four wickets in the third one-day international at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium yesterday to wrest a 2-1 advantage in the five-match series.
A blitzkrieg knock from Tamim Iqbal, who smashed ten fours and two sixes in his 72-ball 80, and a well-composed half-century by Mohammad Ashraful, 63 in 91 balls, took the Tigers to 198 for six in 40.4 overs. They were chasing a paltry Zimbabwe total of 196 that was made in 41.1 overs after the hosts had won the toss for the first time in the series.
Indeed it was an easy victory in the end for the home side, who were upset by five wickets in the first match, but that did not happen before a late-innings wobble that delayed the inevitable.
When Tamim and Ashraful and then Ashraful and Rokibul Hasan were building up partnerships, the win appeared closer. But when former captain Ashraful departed at the start of the 33rd over with the victory only 22 runs away, three wickets fell for just 19 runs and it took them another 8.3 overs to score the remaining runs.
But the most interesting part of the third game under lights at Mirpur was the home side's strategy of fielding five spinners at the expense of one pace bowler; a funny decision to many. One may say what's wrong with the plan when they could keep their opponents below the 200-run mark and as it's well established that their southern African opponents are weak against the slow bowlers.
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