Mahmudullah gets fifty; Saifuddin strikes in 1st over again

A magnificent 41-ball 62 from Mahmudullah Riyad helped Bangladesh post a challenging 175 for seven against Zimbabwe in the fourth match of the ongoing tri-nation T20I series at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chattogram today.

This is however the first match of the tournament’s Chittagong leg as
action resumed in the tri-series after two days gap with coin favouring the
Hamilton Masakadza in this match as he chose to bowl first.

Both Bangladesh and Zimbabwe wouldn’t be proud of their effort in the
Dhaka league of the tournament. Bangladesh were far from their best in both
the matches even though their three-wicket victory against Zimbabwe was not
convincing enough.

Later the hosts lost their second match to Afghanistan by 25 runs,
sparking a widespread criticism.

Zimbabwe however lost their match to Afghanistan also by 28 runs,
meaning they couldn’t afford a defeat in this match against Bangladesh since
the loss would straightway eliminate them from the tournament. So a victory
is mandatory for them.

A defeat in the match won’t rule out Bangladesh’s possibility to reach
the final but the consequence of the defeat would be harsh certainly, given
the way the Tigers performance in recent time irked the fans and the whole
cricket fraternity.

Therefore the desperate Bangladesh brought up three changes to the side
that lost their last match to Afghanistan and also handed debut two players
in top order batsman Nazmul Hossain Shanto, leg-spinning all-rounder Aminul
Islam Biplob. The other player who made it to the squad is Shafiul Islam who
returned to the T20 fold after two years.

To accommodate them, Sabbir Rahman, Soumya Sarkar and Taijul Islam.
Soumya however was not in the squad for the third and fourth match of this
tournament.

Zimbabwe made two changes. They have left out Tendai Chatara and Craig
Ervine and brought in Chris Mpofu and Richmond Mutumbami.

Score Card:

Bangladesh: 175/7, 20 overs( Mahmudullah 62, Jarvis 3/32)

Zimbabwe:  1/1, 1 over ( Maskadza 1, Saifuddin 1/1)