Bangladesh will look to end this year on a winning note when they face Zimbabwe in the second and final Twenty20 international at Mirpur’s Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium today. The match will begin at 5pm and BTV and GTV will telecast it live.
If the Tigers come out victorious then the visitors will return home empty-handed having lost the preceding three-ODI series 3-0. And very few would bet against the home side, who are on cloud nine after an impressive run of form this year, especially in the one-day internationals.
Several wins in the 50-over format have elevated Bangladesh to seventh in the International Cricket Council’s ODI rankings while the Tigers are the second most successful side this year, behind world champions Australia, but concerns regarding their performance in the shortest format are refusing to die down.
Despite their four-wicket victory last Friday in the first T20I, the fall of regular wickets while chasing a modest 132 proved that the Tigers still have some way to go in the format. Batting seems to be the Tigers’ main source of concern at the moment as the batsmen still struggle to get into the right gear in accordance with the match situation.
In contrast, Bangladesh made a very good start with the ball two days ago and although they copped some hammering at the hands of Malcolm Waller in the middle overs, they fought back pretty well.
The hosts are expected to name an unchanged starting XI from the first T20I but there is likely to be some shuffling in the batting order. Bangladesh limited-over captain Mashrafe bin Mortaza cited concerns with the batsmen’s mentality last Friday but did inform that they will be targetting a much-improved batting display today.
In that aspect, all eyes will be on opening batsman Anamul Haque, who played his first international match two days ago since the 2015 ICC World Cup down under. Having fully recovered from a shoulder injury which he incurred in the group-stage match against Scotland, Anamul was unlucky in his comeback game as he was run out after an unfortunate mix-up. The wicketkeeper-batsman will look to come good today.
The Zimbabweans, on the other hand, will surely leave no stones unturned in their pursuit of redemption. They arrived in Bangladesh with the aim of forgetting their recent memories at home against Afghanistan. The southern African nation lost both the ODI and T20I series’ against ICC Associates Afghanistan and were looking to erase their bitter memories but failed horribly.
The Zimbabwe bowlers bowled relatively well while defending the below-par target in the first T20I against the Tigers. They had shaken the home side, scalping five wickets with only 80 runs on the board, but at the end of the day, 131 was not big enough to trouble the Tigers so the visiting batsmen will eye an improved showing today.
