|| CF correspondent ||

Bangladesh opener Imrul Kayes said on Sunday that he would keep the half-century in Asia Cup ahead of the hundred in the series opener against Zimbabwe.

Opener Imrul Kayes struck a brilliant hundred coupled by combined effort of the bowlers helped Bangladesh earn a 28-run win over Zimbabwe in the first one-day international of three-match series against the visitors in Dhaka on Sunday.

Imrul helped Bangladesh settled their nerves with his 144 off 140 balls, guiding the home side to 271-8 before bowlers restricted Zimbabwe to 243-9 after a shaky start in the first match at home in eight months,  at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium.

The match, however, will always be remembered for Imrul’s batting blasts which prevented Bangladesh from getting dismissed for an embarrassingly low score and killed the game as contest halfway through.

‘I will say that it is one of good innings in my career. But the innings against Afghanistan was very special for me. It was scored in a tournament like Asia Cup after I got a sudden call in the team. Obviously it was very challenging for me and I played that very well. Obviously I will put that ahead as it was very essential in my career,’’ Imrul told reporters after the match.

‘’Ultimately when you play well it is always good for your team. Because of this innings, Bangladesh were able to win this match and I am grateful to Almighty for that,’’ he said.

‘I was struggling in the initial period. I could not play drives and the balls were jumping from any areas. When I tried to play strokes, wickets fell from the other side. So I have to make the adjustments. I made my intension to play till the end. I understood that 250-260 could be a good score here. So finally I was able to get success,’’ he added.