Bangladesh secured a clean sweep 3-0 victory over Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe’s tour of Bangladesh was scheduled for two test matches, three ODI’s and two T-20 matches respectively. The Bangladeshis were comfortable winning all three ODI’s with outstanding individual performances and team effort.
Bangladesh were toss winners in the 1st ODI and decided to bat. Early momentum in the batting line-up was given by Liton Das. He managed to score a ton and raised his tally to a whopping 126 runs in just 105 balls. Amongst other batsmen that helped, Mohammed Mithun scored a half-century in 41 balls. All 7 players in the batting order managed to score above 19 runs. The final nail in the coffin was Mohammed Saifuddin’s amazing performance in the last over. He scored an impressive 22 runs in 6 balls hitting 3 sixes. A weak bowling performance by Zimbabwe saw B. Mpofu grabbed 2 wickets and four of the other wickets were taken by other bowlers. Zimbabwe managed to score a mere 152 runs before all of their batsmen were sent back to the pavilion. Mohammed Saifuddin took 3 wickets which was the icing on the cake for Bangladesh. The man of the match was awarded to Liton Das.
The 2nd ODI turned out to be a thriller as Zimbabwe was determined to showcase a good performance after facing an embarrassing defeat in the 1st ODI. Zimbabwe won the toss and chose to bowl first. They soon realized that their plan backfired as Bangladesh headed into the second tie with a lot of confidence and a strong squad which proved crucial as an amazing individual performance by Tamim Iqbal was witnessed by people in Sylhet. He scored 158 runs in 136 balls but wait! There’s more! His innings of 158 runs was the highest individual score by a Bangladeshi batsman. Both the openers Liton Das and Tamim Iqbal matched each other stroke to stroke, it was almost like a competition among them. Their partnership of 292 runs was the third-highest opening partnership in the history of ODI cricket. Zimbabwe batted well and managed to score a total of 318 runs which only fell 4 runs short of Bangladesh’s 322 runs. The man of the match was awarded to Tamim Iqbal.
Bangladesh’s captain Mashrafe Mortaza got to sign off on a pleasant note as they managed to win the 3rd ODI over Zimbabwe. It was like records were breaking each day of this series as another record was set by Liton Das. He broke Tamim Iqbal’s record of 158 runs by scoring an outstanding 176 runs to become the first Bangladeshi batsman ever to score 176 runs in an ODI. Zimbabwe were wrapped up by the Bangladeshis on 218 runs. Sikandar Raza scored 61 runs in 50 balls which was a decent performance and Wesley Madhevere scored 42 runs in 42 balls. No other batsmen for Zimbabwe were able to give a decent performance which forced them to see another loss in the 3 game ODI series. The man of the match for Bangladesh was, again, Liton Das. Player of the series award was shared between Liton Das and Tameem Iqbal for their back to back record-breaking performances.