Bangladesh out to avoid ignominious whitewash

Zimbabwe's Sikandar Raza (R) celebrates Zimbabwe's victory during the second ODI between Zimbabwe and Bangladesh at the Harare Sports Club on 7 August, 2022AFP

Bangladesh are determined to avoid their first clean sweep at the hands of Zimbabwe after 21 years when they take on the host for the third and final One-Day International (ODI) on (Wednesday) at the Harare Sports Club, report news agency BSS.

The match will start at 1:15pm Bangladesh Standard Time. It will be aired live on T Sports.

Bangladesh lost the first two ODIs of the series and it raised the prospect of being clean swept by Zimbabwe after 2001.

The Tigers earlier lost the three-match T20 series by 2-1, which was also their first ever series defeat at the hands of Zimbabwe in that format.

Bangladesh have been clean swept at the hands of Zimbabwe twice in their ODI history. Both of those series happened in 2001 during the first two meetings of the two sides.

Zimbabwe's Victor Nyauchi (R) delivers a ball as Bangladesh's Tamim Iqbal (L) looks on
AFP

Bangladesh and Zimbabwe played 18 bilateral ODI series before the ongoing three-match series, amongst which, the Tigers won 12 and lost 6. However Zimbabwe increased the number of series wins to seven after clinching the current series.

Before losing this one, Bangladesh won five straight series against the African opponents and clean swept them in all of those five series, which extended their winning streak to 19.

In both ODIs, Sikandar Raza stood tall, hitting two unbeaten centuries that sailed the side home in emphatic way. Innocent Kaia with 110 and captain Regis Chakabva with 102 played a second fiddle to him in those two matches to help the side beat Bangladesh. Interestingly, both Kaia and Chakabva got their maiden ODI hundred in the process.

What haunted Bangladesh most is their outdated batting and lacklustre fielding. Despite knowing that the pitch was completely benign, they didn’t force the things in batting. Especially senior players like captain Tamim Iqbal, Mahmudullah and Mushfiqur Rahim were mostly culpable, according to the cricket experts.

Tamim’s 62 in the first match came off 88 balls, which was a crime in this pitch and though he made 50 off 45 in the next game, he played out 34 dot balls, something that is completely unacceptable in modern cricket.

Mahmudullah and Mushfiqur Rahim played many dot balls initially but couldn’t push for the ultimate onslaught in the last powerplay.

When critics raised their voice high against Bangladesh’s senior players who continued to play outdated cricket even in the placid deck, head coach Russell Domingo refused to blame them.

Bangladesh's Mahmudullah watches the ball after playing a shot during the second ODI between Zimbabwe and Bangladesh at the Harare Sports Club on 7 August, 2022
AFP

“(Zimbabwe) were 60 (62) for 3 and 49 for 4 (in the first and second ODIs respectively), but the boys didn’t deal with the pressure well enough,” Domingo said.

“Too many knock-ons in the field, too many soft balls, too many balls bowled to the wrong field, wrong options taken. The boys are trying but they are not learning quickly enough. They are making those same mistakes over and over again. That’s the most disappointing thing.”

Bangladesh captain Tamim Iqbal however emphasised on playing best cricket to have a consolation victory and avoid the whitewash.

“All credit to Zimbabwe, they were the better team this series. We have to pull up our socks. We haven’t played our best cricket and that's why we are in this position,” Tamim said.

“We need to play our best game in the next match to win a match at least. Hopefully we will come up with our best cricket.”

Bangladesh: Tamim Iqbal (c), Liton Das, Anamul Haque, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mahmudullah, Afif Hossain, Nurul Hasan Sohan, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Nasum Ahmed, Taskin Ahmed, Shoriful Islam, Mustafizur Rahman, Hasan Mahmud, Mosaddek Hossain Saikat, Taijul Islam

Zimbabwe: Ryan Burl, Regis Chakabva (wk), Tanaka Chivanga, Craig Ervine (c), Luke Jongwe, Innocent Kaia, Wessly Madhevere, Tadiwanashe Marumani, Wellington Masakadza, Tony Munyonga, Richard Ngarava, Victor Nyauchi, Sikandar Raza, Milton Shumba, Sean Williams