||Desk Report||

The second ODI between Bangladesh and Zimbabwe started with the former winning the toss at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chittagong. Keeping the dew-factor in mind, the Tigers decided to bowl first. Unlike their last few matches, Bangladesh decided to bowl pacers from both ends i the beginning as Mashrafe Mortaza and Mustafizur Rahman started with the ball.

Zimbabwe lost their first wicket in the fifth over, as soon as Mohammad Saifuddin entered the scene. The all-rounder dismissed Hamilton Masakadza for 14 runs and another change in bowling again produced success for the Tigers as Mehidy Hasan scalped a wicket in the very second over of his spell by sending Cephas Zhuwao back to the hut for 20 runs.

The Zimbabwe head-coach had stressed the necessity for the top five batters to take more responsibilities ahead of the match and despite the openers’ failure the other three batsmen certainly met the expectation, sharing good partnerships after the early blows.

Brandon Taylor, after a string of sub-par performances, mounted a great comeback in this match, scoring 75 runs. He shared a 77-run stand with Sean Williams before contributing the big chunk of a 52-run partnership with Zhuwao. Mahmudullah Riyad gave his team the breakthrough by putting and end to Taylor's brilliant knock. His 73-ball innings was laced with nine boundaries and an over-boundary.

A few overs later, Saifuddin struck again to bag the wicket of Williams, who added 47 runs to the total. Zimbabwe still had enough wickets to pose a threat to the hosts in the slog-overs. But Bangladesh’s controlled bowling kept the Chevrons from doing the damage.

Mashrafe opened his account by removing Sikandar Raza for 49 runs, exposing the important chink in Zimbabwe’s batting lineup with a few overs remaining. Peter Moor (17) and Elton Chigumbura (3) then failed to make their mark before giving their wickets to Mustafizur and Saifuddin, respectively.

Zimbabwe finished their innings with 246 runs on the board, losing seven wickets. Bangladesh will now need their batsmen to shine in order to keep the pressure off their team. Losing wickets in bunches, like they did in the last match, will certainly not help them as the visiting side will be desperate to come back and level the three-match series by winning this clash.