Zimbabwe pacer Tendai Chatara believes Bangladesh’s ODI style batting helped Zimbabwe inflict damage in the ongoing first Test of the two-match series at the Sylhet International Stadium (SIS). Replying to Zimbabwe’s 282 Bangladesh were bundled out to 143 runs following another batting debacle.
Five of the 10 Bangladesh wickets were catches from edges and the selection of shots rather than the merit of the delivery made the situation all the more appalling.
Bangladesh had come to the Test series on the back of a 3-0 ODI series win against the visitors. The victories were majorly backed by some sensational performance from the batsmen.
“They had a good series in the ODIs, so we knew that they were going to come and play in that one-day mode, which will present us with a lot of chances in the Tests because the field sets will be quite attacking. I think they haven’t really adjusted from ODI cricket to playing Tests, where you leave many balls, whereas in ODIs you’ll be looking for scoring shots,” said Chatara to the media at SIS on Sunday.
Chatara shone for Zimbabwe with three wickets, removing the Bangladesh top order early into the innings and gave the visitors momentum to cash in. Going against the claim of the Sylhet wicket being unsupportive for pacers, Chatara put his side in the driving seat. He produced the three valuable wickets in 12 overs and conceded just 35 runs. The two Zimbabwe seamers - Chatara and Kyle Jarvis - shared five wickets in the innings.
“If you hit a good area (on the pitch) there is purchase for seamers, considering that the seamers took five wickets,” said Chatara.
“Early on (into the innings) I was just trying to hit a good area, because there was so much talk about Bangladesh being flat. So it was about hitting a good area early on, and making the batsman play as much as possible,” the Zimbabwe bowler added.
