Tanzid 94, Shoriful four-fer help Bangladesh avoid whitewash

In the third one-day international at Harare on Saturday, Bangladesh defeated Zimbabwe in a decisive but consoling victory. Bangladesh breezed to a seven-wicket victory, led by Tanzid Hasan Tamim's 94. They were able to restrict the hosts to just 199 runs earlier in the day thanks to Shoriful Islam's four-wicket haul.

Bangladesh took advantage of the new ball on a surface with varying bounce after choosing to bowl first to restrict Zimbabwe. Ben Curran was out when Shoriful struck in the sixth over, putting the hosts out at 12. Taskin Ahmed then removed Brian Bennett in the very next over, and by the 13th over Zimbabwe had only reached 27 when Shoriful returned to dismiss Craig Ervine.

Wessly Madhevere and Innocent Kaia were able to stop the slide with a 51-run stand, but progress was still slow. Madhevere persevered, scoring 75 runs off 74 balls, and the partnership came to an end when Kaia was run out in the 27th over. After that, Zimbabwe reached 200 thanks to Brad Evans' second consecutive fifty and an important hand down the order. In the end, they were run out for 199 in the 49th over.

Zimbabwe would have remained confident after defending just 141 at the same venue earlier in the week, despite resting their frontline pace attack and having a small total to work with. However, Bangladesh got off to a rousing start, so any hopes of replicating this effort were dashed right away. By hitting Ernest Masuku for a six and a four in the second over, Tanzid set the tone early. He continued to attack as Bangladesh raced to 59 for no loss by the end of the Powerplay.

After that, the openers shared a 151-run stand to effectively end the game. Before Tanzid reached his century target in the 35th over, Zimbabwe missed three chances to bowl him out. Largely playing second fiddle, Soumya Sarkar too played an important hand with 69 with Bangladesh reaching their target with 14 overs to spare.