Bangladesh national cricket team sealed their five-match Twenty20 International series against Zimbabwe in the third game as they found an unconvincing nine-run win at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chattogram on Tuesday.聽
Towhid Hridoy鈥檚 career-best innings of 57 runs off 38 balls, which included three boundaries and two sixes, alongside Jaker Ali Anik鈥檚 34-ball 44 propelled the hosts to 165-5 batting first.
While it should have been a convincing win for the Tigers聽with聽Zimbabwe reeling at 91-8 in 14.1 overs, they failed to close out the game as it was not until two balls were remaining that victory was guaranteed, with Zimbabwe ending on 156-9.
Mohammad Saifuddin took three wickets聽and聽Rishad Hossain picked two, while Tanvir Islam, Taskin Ahmed, Tanzim Hasan Sakib, and Mahmudullah shared the remaining four wickets.聽
Faraz Khan, one of the two changes for Zimbabwe, scored the highest with an unbeaten 19-ball 34, while Tadiwanashe Marumani scored 31 off 26 balls.
Sent in to bat first, Bangladesh failed to make a good start once again as聽they were reduced聽to 29-2 after Liton Das, who scored 1 and 23 in the past two games, was dismissed for 12 to Blessing Muzarabani, followed by skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto, who has been undergoing a dismal run in this series,聽being bowled聽for six to Sikandar Raza.聽
Faraz Akram聽then聽got Tanzid Hasan Tamim for 21 off 22 balls to reduce the hosts to 60-3.
Zimbabwe sniffed a chance to dominate Bangladesh聽but聽it was foiled by Towhid, the most consistent batter in this series, and Jaker Ali Anik as they combined for 87 off 57 balls, helping Bangladesh reach a defendable total.
Hridoy bagged his first T20I fifty, hitting Luke Jongwe to deep cover for a single off 34 balls.
Muzarabani, who claimed 3-14 from four overs, finally broke the partnership, rattling Hridoy鈥檚 stumps with a yorker.
Two balls later, Muzarabani produced another yorker to get Jaker, who was just six runs away from his fifty, struck three fours and two sixes.
Mahmudullah and Rishad then took Bangladesh past 160 in the final over.
In reply, Zimbabwe were聽back聽foot from the start and lost wickets regularly, which paved the way for their defeat.聽
They produced some fight as their tail-ender duo of Faraz and Wellington Masakadza added 54 runs off 30 balls for the ninth wicket, which provided them with a聽little聽hope.聽
In the 17th over, Faraz hit back-to-back boundaries in the last two balls off Saifuddin, completing an 18-run over, which saw them needing 36 runs off the final three overs.聽
However, they eventually failed to reach the victory line as Taskin and Tanzim gave away 15 runs in the next two overs, and Saifuddin managed to give 11 runs in the final over.
The teams will 聽travel to Dhaka today聽ahead of聽the final two games 鈥� on May 10 and 12 鈥� at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium.
