Bangladesh stunned: Zimbabwe pull off smash and grab in nail-biting win

All-round Madziva helps visitors level two-match series 1-1

DHAKA: Zimbabwe pulled off a nail-biting three-wicket win against Bangladesh in the second T20I to level the two-match series 1-1 in Dhaka on Sunday.

The visitors needed 18 runs off five balls when man of the match Neville Madziva smashed Nasir Hossain for 6, 2, 4 before finishing off the game with another maximum to give Zimbabwe the win with a ball to spare.

The win not only gives Zimbabwe a share of the spoils in the series but also halts a miserable run of 13 consecutive losses against the hosts across all three formats of the game.

The Zimbabwe bowlers had done well to restrict Bangladesh to just 135-9 earlier in the day, with Tinashe Panyangara claiming 3-30 in his four overs. Graeme Cremer and Madziva also impressed with figures of 2-21 and 2-25 respectively.

Bangladesh would be disappointed with the way their batsmen played, with Anamul Haque being the only batsmen to provide any form of resistance to the bowlers in his 51-ball 47.

However, wickets kept falling just when they looked like accelerating towards the end.

In reply, Zimbabwe were in real trouble after losing their top five for just 39 by the ninth over. alAmin Hossain was the chief destroyer for Bangladesh, claiming an impressive 3-20 in his four overs, while Mustafizur Rahman also gave nothing away in his four-over spell that yielded miserly figures of 1-12.

However, Zimbabwe steadied the ship in the second half of their innings before Malcolm Waller, who was named the man of the series, and Madziva provided the necessary explosion at the end to snatch an unlikely win out of the jaws of defeat for the visitors.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 16^th, 2015.

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