1st T20i
Zimbabwe 163/7 (20/20 ov)
Bangladesh 166/6 (18.4/20 ov)
Bangladesh won by 4 wickets (with 8 balls remaining)
Bangladesh outdid Zimbabwe in Khulna by being the scrappier of the two sides, winning the first T20 by four wickets. Zimbabwe suffered a middle-order collapse which left them with a much lower score than they had hoped for, and Bangladesh eventually gunned down their target of 164 with eight deliveries to spare.
When Mahmudullah was the sixth batsman to fall in the 17th over of Bangladesh's chase, Shakib Al Hasan had debutant Nurul Hasan to steer the hosts to score the remaining 27 runs in 3.1 overs. Brian Vitori then proceeded to leak 14 runs off an over, including a four off a Nurul scoop, and five wides down the leg-side. In the penultimate over, Shakib struck two fours, the first edged through third-man and the next a cool flick over square-leg, before Luke Jongwe bowled a horrible wide that flew past the wicketkeeper for a boundary, completing Bangladesh's victory.
Soumya Sarkar was Bangladesh's first wicket, running himself out after a horrendous mix-up with Tamim Iqbal, with both batsmen ending up in the striker's end after Tamim had whipped a ball to short fine-leg. Tamim was soon dismissed, in the seventh over, having struck three fours and a six in his 24-ball 29 which featured a commanding start but an insipid ending. Shuvagata Hom, one of two debutants for Bangladesh, fell for 6 when a Sean Williams delivery spun past his bat to knock off the off-bail.
Bangladesh were nearly at par with Zimbabwe in the ten-over mark, but had a set Sabbir Rahman, sent to bat at No 3. Sabbir was dropped on 36 when Vusi Sibanda failed to claim a catch at long-on in the 12th over. He struck a clean blow over midwicket for six before giving a catch to deep midwicket off the next ball, falling for a 36-ball 46.
Mushfiqur too fell in the same area, attempting a similar shot after making 26 off 19 balls, leaving Mahmudullah and Shakib with 39 to get from the last 4.1 overs. Mahmudullah smacked Luke Jongwe for a six over cover, but missed a straight delivery the next ball to get bowled for 7. Thankfully for him and Bangladesh, Shakib stayed till the end to power the hosts to a series lead.
Earlier, Zimbabwe, having opted to bat, could not have asked for a better start from their openers Hamilton Masakadza and the returning Sibanda. The pair started off with seven fours and a six in the Powerplay overs, Masakadza finding the rope thrice in Mashrafe's second over, while Sibanda launched into Shakib's flighted offering over long-on for the first six of the match. They added 50 in 6.3 overs but the boundary hunting was still on. Two more sixes followed, the second of which, hit by Sibanda, was juggled at the boundary several times before Soumya toed the rope with the ball in his grasp.
Sibanda, though, was out next ball, caught at cover for 46 off 39 balls with four fours and the two sixes. But the 101 runs he and Masakadza added were Zimbabwe's highest for the opening wicket in T20s. Masakadza kept up the pressure and was about to topple his and his team's highest individual score in T20s, but was run out for 79 in the 18th over, falling short of the crease as Nurul , the debutant wicketkeeper, managed a direct hit. Nurul had earlier combined well with Sabbir Rahman to also run out Malcolm Waller for 14.
Masakadza's 53-ball knock had nine fours and two sixes but Zimbabwe struggled to take advantage of his efforts. In the over after Masakadza's dismissal, Zimbabwe's captain Elton Chigumbura and Luke Jongwe were both yorked by Mustafizur Rahman; the first was on middle and the next on leg-stump. Sikandar Raza and Sean Williams got out in the last over to Al-Amin Hossain as Zimbabwe got only 21 runs in the last four overs, losing five wickets in the process.
2nd T20i
Bangladesh 167/3 (20/20 ov)
Zimbabwe 125/8 (20/20 ov)
Bangladesh won by 42 runs
Sabbir Rahman gave an account of his allround abilities in Bangladesh's 42-run win over Zimbabwe in the second T20 in Khulna. He smacked an unbeaten 43 before picking up the vital wicket of Hamilton Masakadza, one of his three scalps, as the wind was taken out of the visitors' 168-run chase in the ninth over.
Soumya Sarkar also made 43, but missed out on a bigger score after he threw his wicket away in the 10th over. Yet, Bangladesh kept hitting the boundaries - they managed 11 fours and eight sixes to equal their own record of most sixes in a T20 innings. Zimbabwe's reply was nearly a mirror image of Bangladesh's first half, until Sabbir came along to seal a victory that gave Bangladesh a 2-0 lead in the four-match series.
Bangladesh started well, but the real push came when Tamim Iqbal hammered Neville Madziva for a four and six in the fifth over. By getting into his hitting zone, he then smacked Taurai Muzarabani through cover in the next over. But just as he started to rev up his engine, he also found a top edge that was easily taken by Brian Vitori at fine leg in the sixth over.
Sarkar, who also looked authoritative by striking three fours and a six before Tamim fell, then build the base further along with Sabbir. He was particularly harsh on Graeme Cremer, the legspinner, who was hit for sixes over deep midwicket and long-on. But just like Tamim had done, Sarkar threw it away in the 10th over as Malcolm Waller took an easy catch at deep midwicket to end his promising innings of 43.
Zimbabwe were further boosted by the wicket of Mahmudullah, which was brought about by a superb catch by wicketwickeeper Richmond Mutumbami. That meant Mushfiqur Rahim had to bat through the second half of the innings to give Bangladesh a solid total to defend. That he did, despite his hamstring pulling up in the 16th over, by adding 52 for the fourth wicket with Sabbir.
Sabbir made the most of a reprieve on 7 by Mutumbami as he lined up the straight boundaries well, even as Mushfiqur used the bowler's pace well in his 20-ball 24 before hobbing off the field. Shakib then finished off the innings with a cameo as Bangladesh took 50 off the last five overs. Yet, they would have perhaps felt 10-15 short.
Masakadza came out all guns blazing, hitting two fours and two sixes in 2.2 overs, while Vusi Sibanda also soon got into the act. Zimbabwe were reprieved twice in the fourth over bowled by Mashrafe Mortaza. First, the substitute Imrul Kayes dropped Masakadza at cover, before Shuvagata couldn't reach a chance at midwicket.
But Mashrafe soon had a wicket to show as Sibanda was bowled off the inside edge for 21 off 17. It was then that Sabbir was thrown the ball, and he delivered by having Masakadza, caught at long-on for a 28-ball 30 that had three fours and two sixes. Sean Williams fell soon after to give Shuvagata his first T20 wicket to leave Zimbabwe needing a further 103 runs from the last ten overs.
Sabbir then had the wicket of Mutumbami, who holed out to Sarkar at deep midwicket.
Malcolm Waller briefly kept Zimbabwe in it by striking a four each in the 13th, 14th and 15th over, but an already escalating rate coupled with Bangladesh's spinners using the slowness of the surface well meant the chase kept spiralling out of control. Waller was eventually dismissed for a 21-ball 29 Al-Amin Hossain in the 16th over.
With the game all but over, Mustafizur Rahman then came to the party to dismiss eville Madziva and Peter Moor in the 17th over to puncture Zimbabwe. The last wicket was fittingly taken by Sabbir, who became the second Bangladesh cricketer to score at least 40 and take two wickets in T20.
With a series win out of the equation, Zimbabwe have two more matches to potentially get their combinations right leading into the World T20.
3rd T20i
Zimbabwe 187/6 (20/20 ov)
Bangladesh 156/6 (20/20 ov)
Zimbabwe won by 31 runs
Zimbabwe's batting line-up put up a power-packed performance, something they hadn't done earlier in the series, to keep it alive with a 31-run win in the third T20 against Bangladesh. Zimbabwe's spinners continued to pick wickets, like they had done earlier in the series, and derailed the hosts' chase around the halfway mark despite their strong start.
Marshalled by Vusi Sibanda at the start and Malcolm Waller later, Zimbabwe's sustained aggression took them to a challenging 187 after stand-in captain Hamilton Masakadza had said the "160-mark" would be decent on this pitch in Khulna. Tendai Chisoro, Graeme Cremer and Sikandar Raza took all six wickets and conceded only 40 runs in their 10 overs.
There were useful contributions from all of Zimbabwe's top five batsmen, and each of them had a strike rate of over 120. Sibanda showed his intent from the first ball he faced by charging at left-arm pacer Abu Hider, one of the four Bangladesh debutants, to drill him through the covers for four. He carved out a pretty wide 'V' on both sides of the pitch by dispatching meaty drives and flicks. Masakadza also got going after a slow start, and hammered Mohammad Shahid, another debutant, for four consecutive fours, but fell for 20 when in search of a fifth.
Hider and Shahid were punished for 45 runs in the first four overs and Sibanda welcomed the third debutant Muktar Ali with a four as well. Zimbabwe were 59 for 1 when rain interrupted and Shakib Al Hasan had Richmond Mutumbami and Sibanda caught at deep midwicket after the break, in consecutive overs, to drag the run-rate from over ten to under eight.
Meanwhile, Waller and Williams were getting themselves set. And having faced about ten balls each, they unfurled a barrage of boundaries to help Zimbabwe swindle 85 runs from the last seven overs; six of those went for at least ten an over.
Mosaddek Hossain dropped Williams on 12 at backward point, but it was Waller who caused more damage. Shahid, Mashrafe Mortaza and Shakib - all were punished for sixes before Waller eventually holed out to deep midwicket, for a 23-ball 49. Williams continued till the last over and some late strikes from Peter Moor too meant the Bangladesh bowlers got no respite.
Chisoro dented Bangladesh's chase in the first over to dismiss Imrul Kayes, playing his first match of the series, for 1 but Soumya Sarkar and Sabbir Rahman kept the hosts in the hunt. Sarkar used his wrists to find gaps and Sabbir targeted the leg side, just like he had done in the second T20, with pulls and slogs. Sabbir mirrored Masakadza by dispatching three straight fours in the sixth over that hauled their run-rate over nine. Zimbabwe also paid the price for Mutumbami's mistake when he missed Sarkar's stumping off Williams' first ball. That over cost 12 runs and the visitors seemed unsettled.
Zimbabwe caught a break when Sarkar top-edged a slog sweep for an easy catch at midwicket in Cremer's first over that broke their most productive and threatening stand, of 67 runs. Masakadza rotated his spinners for the next nine overs, the asking rate shot up and the wickets came down. Sabbir brought up a 31-ball fifty with a four in the 11th over but fell two balls later by holing out in the leg side.
Their hopes fell on Shakib, but he found Waller at long-on with 86 required from 36. Mahmudullah top-edged Cremer in the same over to give Mutumbami an easy catch. As well as Nurul Hasan scooped during his 17-ball 30 and Muktar supported him with 19 from 15, it just wasn't enough.
4th T20i
Zimbabwe 180/4 (20/20 ov)
Bangladesh 162 (19/20 ov)
Zimbabwe won by 18 runs
First it was Hamilton Masakadza, who scored a record-breaking 93 to help Zimbabwe post a formidable total. Then came Tendai Chisoro's three-wicket haul that applied the brakes on Bangladesh's chase of 181 as the visitors levelled the series at 2-2 with an 18-run win in Khulna.
While Chisoro picked up the key wickets of Sabbir Rahman and Shakib Al Hasan, and Mahmudullah, Neville Madziva, the pacer, did the damage at the start and towards the end as Bangladesh were bowled out for 162 in 19 overs to lose by 18 runs.
Bangladesh's chase started badly as the top four were blown away with just 17 on the board. Mahmudullah and Imrul Kayes tried to resurrect the innings; Kayes slamming two fours and a six to briefly get the crowd going. But an attempted hoick over deep midwicket brought an end to his innings for a 14-ball 18 in the seventh over.
Mahmudullah, meanwhile, rode luck found boundaries through edges and clips, but he soon got into his zone by hammering sixes over deep midwicket and long-off. Along the way, he was also a recipient of a huge slice of luck when he was dropped by Vusi Sibanda on 13.
Nurul Hasan and Mahmudullah added 57 runs in 6.3 overs as the scales started to tilt again. But Sikander Raza revived Zimbabwe's hopes as he had Nurul, who was caught at cover. Mashrafe Mortaza, who has shown ability to wield the long handle, struck him for a four and six in the same over to reduce the equation down to 60 off the last six overs.
A hint of panic endured as Elton Chigumbura threw the ball to his frontline spinner Graeme Cremer. Panic turned into proper nerves as he too was tonked for six by Mashrafe. But one slog too many resulted in Mahmudullah's downfall at the other end as he missed a full ball from Chisoro. Abu Hider Rony swung his way around, but he his effort had to be consigned to being scant consolation for the hosts. He was the last man to fall as Luke Jongwe held on to a low catch at cover to complete the win.
The game started differently for Zimbabwe as they lost an early wicket, but Richmond Mutumbami and Masakadza got them up and running with a brisk 80-run stand. Mutumbami was also reprieved by Taskin Ahmed at short fine leg to add to Bangladesh's woes.
Masakadza brought out his entire range of strokes, using a combination of brute force and timing to negotiate Bangladesh's spinners on a slow deck. He too was reprieved on 36 as the hosts suddenly went off the boil. Despite dismissing Mutumbami for a 25-ball 32, Bangladesh didn't look like getting control as Malcolm Waller blasted his way to an 18-ball 36 to strengthen Zimbabwe's base.
On the night, the final flourish proved enough as Zimbabwe ran away emphatic winners as they restored parity to head into the World T20 with some confidence restored following a demoralising limited-overs series loss to Afghanistan earlier in the month. The jewel in Zimbabwe's twin wins to cap off their tour was Masakadza, whose 222 runs is a world record for most runs in a T20 bilateral series.
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