A combined effort from left-arm spinners Elias Sunny and Mominul Haque paved the way for Bangladesh A’s win in the third one-day against Zimbabwe A as the home side won the match by 31 runs to clinch the series 2-1 at Fatullah’s Khan Shaheb Osman Ali Stadium yesterday.
The second-string Bangladesh side rode on Marshal Ayub’s 57 to post a decent 239 before getting bowled out in the last ball of the 50th over.
Chasing the target the visitors faced a very disciplined bowling attack with the spinners creating all the trouble. Elias removed the dangerous Regis Chakabva (eight) in the sixth over to start the domination act as Bangladesh claimed wickets at regular intervals to slow down the run-rate and put Zimbabwe under further pressure.
Late-order batsman Malcolm Waller’s 77-ball 52 was the highest score as Zimbabwe A managed 208 for 8 in 50 overs.
Sunny and Mominul took three wickets each while Mosaddek Hossain and Jubair Hossain shared the rest.
Soumya Sarkar (22) and Liton Kumar Das (46) earlier put on 50 runs to give the hosts a healthy start. However, the cheap dismissals of Naeem Islam (nine) and Mominul (six) left the Bangladesh A side in a spot of bother before skipper Marshal paired up with Mosaddek to add 54 for the fifth wicket.
Mosaddek scored 25 before 40 runs came from the seventh-wicket partnership between Nurul Hasan (19) and Farhad Reza (32).
Zimbabwe A medium-pacer Taurai Muzarabani proved to be the main threat as he bagged four wickets for 33 runs from seven overs. Luke Jongwe and Waller also picked up a wicket each.
