Brian Vitori took his second five-wicket haul in as many matches as Zimbabwe beat Bangladesh by seven wickets in the second one-day cricket international at Harare Sports Club yesterday.
The hosts have now won all four matches of the tour thus far, including a Test and a three-day warm-up, and enjoy a two-nil lead in the five-match ODI series.
On Friday Vitori became just the seventh bowler in history to take a five-wicket haul on one-day debut, and he followed that up yesterday by taking 5 for 20 – the sixth best figures by a Zimbabwean bowler in ODIs, as Bangladesh were bowled out for 188 in 47.3 overs.
Vitori also became the first bowler to take five wickets in each of his first two career one-day internationals.
Although Zimbabwe lost their captain Brendan Taylor early on in the reply, Vusi Sibanda followed up his 96 in the series opener on Friday with a steady 67, before Tatenda Taibu finished unbeaten on 61 from 74 balls as the hosts coasted home with almost six overs to spare.
The match was in many respects a reflection of Friday’s clash, with Bangladesh’s top order collapsing cheaply before the lower middle order pulled things back, and then Sibanda providing the spine of the successful reply.
Debutant Nasir Hossain was the hero for the tourists with the bat, rescuing his brittle side from 58 for six by making 63 from the number eight position.
Vitori had removed both Bangladeshi openers, while Chris Mpofu bounced out Mushfiqur Rahim after the wicketkeeper-batsman had been promoted to number three, leaving Bangladesh struggling on 26 for three.
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Shahriar Nafees and Mohammad Ashraful attempted to take the patient approach to rebuilding, but the introduction of Elton Chigumbura put paid to their efforts as Nafees popped a slower delivery straight to cover and Ashraful edged behind.
When Prosper Utseya had Mahmudullah caught behind shortly afterwards, the Tigers were 58 for six and in danger of being beaten by lunch.
Instead Nasir gave support to skipper Shakib Al Hasan as the duo put on 53 for the seventh wicket, with the debutant particularly harsh in putting away the short ball.
Vitori returned for an over to break the partnership as he trapped Shakib lbw for 26, but Bangladesh counter-attacked through Abdur Razzak as his 32-ball 35 added 75 to the score alongside Nasir.
Again it took Vitori to break through, as he returned for his final spell and had Nasir caught in the deep, then bowled Razzak with a peach of a delivery that hit the top of off stump.
With Rubel Hossain run out off the very next ball, Bangladesh were all out with 15 deliveries left unused and Vitori had the record for most wickets taken by a bowler in his first two one-day internationals.
The hosts brushed aside the early loss of their skipper thanks to a sturdy 83-run partnership between Sibanda and Hamilton Masakadza which took the score to 87 for one, before Masakadza failed to read Mahmudullah’s doosra and was stumped for 38.
However, any thoughts of a Bangladeshi revival were snuffed out by the arrival of Taibu, who calmly added 59 for the third wicket with Sibanda.
The opening batsman was in no great hurry due to the low required run-rate, taking 96 balls for his innings as he happily played second fiddle to Taibu. Part-timer Mohammad Ashraful eventually got the better of Sibanda, but by that stage Zimbabwe were just 43 runs from victory and Craig Ervine kept Taibu company until the end.
Bangladesh fell apart at the seams as defeat neared, dropping a simple chance from Taibu and then helping him to 50 with seven runs from one delivery, when the batsmen ran three and then collected four overthrows.
The next match takes place at the same venue tomorrow, when the tourists will have to pull themselves together if they want to take anything out of the series. —Cricket365.com
