BAN Vs ZIM second test

[kaiser_alam]

Bangladesh lost their last three wickets for one run as they were all out for 254 soon after lunch at the Harare Sports Club.

It was an anti-claimax for the tourists, who had added 55 to their overnight score in the morning session, with Mushfiqur Rahman the only batsman dismissed.

But Akram Khan fell to the third ball after the resumption and seam bowler Brighton Watambwa quickly claimed the last two wickets to bring the innings to a close.

Akram's 44 was his highest score in Test cricket, but he enjoyed a spot of good fortune 10 minutes before lunch when he pulled a ball from Watambwa to fine leg where Mluleki Nkala took the catch.

Nkala had one foot over the boundary rope, however, and Akram was awarded six runs.

Bangladesh had resumed on 198 for six and had advanced the score by only nine runs when Rahman was caught behind off Zimbabwe captain Heath Streak for two.

The ball was still relatively new but the home side were unable to part Akram and Enamul Hoque before lunch, with left-arm spinner Ray Price failing to trouble the batsman on a good wicket despite his four wickets on the first day.

Andy Blignaut was handed the ball at the start of the afternoon session and needed three balls to find the edge of Akram's bat and end his defiant knock, which had lasted three hours and seven minutes.

Watambwa had Mohammad Sharif caught at slip for a duck in the next over and ended Bangladesh's resistance two balls later by dismissing Manjural Islam in similar fashion, leaving Hoque unbeaten on 20.

[kaiser_alam]

A sixth wicket stand between Heath Streak and Grant Flower allied to a half-century by Alistair Campbell put Zimbabwe in a strong position at the close of the third day of the second Test in Harare.

When rain brought an early end Zimbabwe were 377 for six - a first innings lead of 123 - with captain Streak unbeaten on 65.

Flower scored 84 as he put on 133 with Streak. He was at the crease for almost four-and-a-half hours, faced 218 balls and hit five fours and two sixes before he pulled what became the last ball of the day, a long hop from left-arm spinner Enamul Hoque, to Mohammad Sharif at mid-wicket.

Streak scored his runs in three-and-a-half hours, off 137 balls and with seven fours. He did survive two close calls when on 55.

First, wicketkeeper Mehrab Hossain made a hash of a clear stumping chance off Naimur Rahman, the off-spinner.

Then Streak seemed to glove a leg-side delivery from Mohammed Sharif to the wicketkeeper, only for umpire Russell Tiffin to give the batsman the benefit of the doubt.

Streak and Flower picked up from former captain Campbell after lunch following Campbell's 14th Test half-century.

Campbell scored 73 in just under three hours from 135 balls with six fours.

His effort gave the innings substance, but he yet again failed to advance to three figures. He has only one century to his name from 50 Tests.

Confusion

Campbell began aggressively, pulling and cutting the first four balls of the day, bowled by Manjural Islam, to the boundary.

In the second over Stuart Carlisle pushed too firmly at a ball from medium pacer Mohammed Sharif and was caught at short-leg by Habibul Bashar for 21 to end a third-wicket stand of 60.

Campbell and Andy Flower added 46 for the fourth wicket before confusion between the batsmen saw Flower run out for 23 at the non-striker's end by Javed Omar after being sent back.

Campbell fell shortly before lunch, sweeping a sharply turning delivery from off-spinner Naimur Rahman straight to Mushfiqur Rahman at short mid-wicket.

[kaiser_alam]

Zimbabwe won the Second Test match against Bangladesh at Harare Sports Club in mid-afternoon on the fifth day, by a margin of eight wickets. They bowled out the tourists for 265 and knocked off the 100 needed to win without undue trouble, for the loss of their openers. This was Zimbabwe's fifth Test victory in exactly 50 matches, Andy Flower and Alistair Campbell having playing in them all, and their first proper series win at home, excluding their one-off victory over India in 1998/99.

Bangladesh began the day steadily but again lost a vital wicket just as they were looking settled, Habibul Bashar (76) chasing a ball from Heath Streak that moved away to be caught at the wicket. Then Naimur Rahman (36), who had been looking determined and solid, attempted a second run to Gavin Rennie, substituting for Andy Blignaut who had a leg injury, and was run out. Bangladesh, at 264 for seven and only the tail left, appeared to be on their way out.

As usual the tail did not last long. Enamul Haque (3) soon followed, caught at the wicket off Brighton Watambwa; Mohammad Sharif (0) was caught in the slips off Streak, and then Monjurul (0) snicked Watambwa to the keeper. Mushfiqur Rahman was unbeaten on 2 as Bangladesh were dismissed for 266, leaving Zimbabwe exactly 100 to win. Watambwa returned the best bowling figures with four for 64.

Bangladesh fought hard and Guy Whittall at times seemed to be playing the ball with his midriff as often as his bat. But their bowlers are not as lethal as Courtney Walsh and Co in the Caribbean a year ago, and the openers survived until lunch. Then immediately afterwards they managed to achieve their fourth run-out of the match, casual running and fine fielding from Javed Omer at third man resulting in the dismissal of Dion Ebrahim for 10.

Eight runs short of victory, Whittall was bowled for 60, attempting a big hit off Enamul Hoque that turned out of the rough, but two powerful leg-side hits by Stuart Carlisle settled the issue.

[tehsin24]

I completely forgot about this site when the series started. Or I would invited the cricket fans here to my site (http://www.teststatus.com) beforehand. There was about 40,000 hits all month with 28,000 them in the message board. You will enjoy the various posting from INFORMED fans actually.
I know that the next couple of month will be slower but still, the site gets updated every other day and the Tiger's board is constantly gettiong posts. One more thing we did was getting together in the chat room during the test and ODI matches. Sorry, i did not get to welcome you before it all ended. But it's never too late.
Hope to see you there.

Tehsin
teststatus.com