Bangladesh marching towards victory – 2nd Test vs. Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe 282 and 4-138 (Hamilton Masakadza 46*, Vusi Sibanda 32, Ziaur Rahman 2-36) trails Bangladesh 391 and 9-291 declared (Mushfiqur Rahim 93, Nasir Hossain 67, Shingi Masakadza 4-58) by 263 runs.

Bangladesh set a difficult target of 401 runs for the hosts Zimbabwe to win the final Test and the visitors were just six wickets away from the eminent win.

Bangladesh plundered 391 runs in their first innings followed by 9-291 declared in the second whereas Zimbabwe managed 282 in the first and 4-138 after 43.4 overs in the second.

The fourth day of the second and final Test finished on Sunday, April 28, 2013, at Harare Sports Club.

Earlier, the visitors went into bat in the morning at 163 runs with five wickets in hand after 49 overs. The Bangladeshi skipper,  Mushfiqur Rahim, and Nasir Hossain were unbeaten on 50 and 6 respectively. The beginning was reasonable as the score was taken to 194 after 61 overs and the second hundred of the innings appeared on the screen in the next over with a couple of fours from Mushfiqur Rahim. Nasir Hossain was extremely slow at the other end and scored 17 runs off the first 63 balls he faced and hit his first boundary in the 66th over. The sixth wicket association enhanced the score to 233 when Vusi Sibanda held and acrobatic catch off Mushfiqur Rehman at shortish backward point on the bowling of Hamilton Masakadza for 93 from 153 deliveries with 9 fours.

Nasir Hossain - Successive fifty of the match
Nasir Hossain – Successive fifty of the match

Nasir Hossain took over as a senior partner as the wickets kept on sliding from the other end. He started picking up the boundaries and completed his second fifty of the match with a six in the 81st over. Nasir Hossain secured his end for 67 off 129 with 1 six and 3 fours as the innings of Bangladesh was declared for 291 with one wicket remaining in 88 overs.

Shingi Masakadza was the highest wicket taker with four, Hamilton Masakadza got three whereas Kyle Jarvis and Graeme Cremer claimed one wicket each.

Zimbabwe required 401 runs to win the Test as Vusi Sibanda along with Regis Chakabva opened the second innings smoothly and scored 34 runs in the initial nine overs. Shakib Al Hasan got the first breakthrough in the next over when he removed Chakabva for 22 as the score reached 36. Hamilton Masakadza appeared in the center next as Sibanda hit the first six  of the innings in the 11th over and Hamilton Masakadza added 10 runs three overs later with 1 six and 1 four. Vusi Sibanda was caught by Sohag Gazi off Shakib Al Hasan at 66 at his personal feat of 32 runs.

The captain of Zimbabwe, Brendan Taylor, got together with Hamilton Masakadza who kept on crawling from his end. Taylor was playing a subdued innings and scored just one run from the first 11 balls. Masakadza added few boundaries in the following overs as Taylor was declared leg before wicket for 10 off 43 deliveries with 1 four. Malcolm Waller dropped in next but was unable to carry on with the patience required by the situation and his stumps were shattered by Ziaur Rahman for 15. The fourth wicket went down at 118 in 33.3 overs when the night watchman, Shingi Masakadza, associated with Hamilton Masakadza. The duo saw the day off without losing any further wicket as the hosts reached 138 after 43.4 overs.  Hamilton Masakadza was four runs short of his fourth Test fifty and his younger brother, Shingi Masakadza was at the other side for seven.

Shakib Al Hasan and Ziaur Rahman were the two successful bowlers with two wickets each among the five utilised.

Bangladesh requires another six wickets to win the match and Zimbabwe looks like being in trouble as they still need 263 runs to register another triumph in the series with one full day remaining.


Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.