Chevrons dominate day one against Bangladesh

By Brandon Moyo, The Chronicle - ZIMBABWE dominated to overwhelm the first day of their Test match against Bangladesh at Sylhet International Cricket Stadium in Sylhet, Bangladesh yesterday.

The Chevrons took an early upper hand in the game by bowling the hosts out for paltry 191 runs and at stumps were on 67/0, being 124 runs behind as Brian Bennett and Ben Curran played smoothly to see them through the 14.1 overs.

Zimbabwe were sent in to bat initially. Wellington Masakadza and Blessing Muzarabani led the charge with three wickets apiece while Victor Nyauchi and Wessly Madhevere contributed two wickets each.

Nyauchi knocked two for Zimbabwe in 11 overs, dismissing Tigers' openers Shadman Islam (12) and Mahmudul Hasan Joy (14) to the pavilion. The two initial wickets left the hosts at 32/2.

Bangladesh came back with a 66-run third wicket partnership between Najmul Hossain Shanto and Mominul Haque before the latter was given out off a Muzarabani delivery for 40 runs from 69 balls.

Fourth wicket to fall was that of Mishfiqur Rahim who was caught off a Masakadza delivery for four runs. Masakadza would later take his second of the day, getting rid of Haque — dropped earlier for being dismissed on zero — caught by 56 off 105.

A couple of overs later, Muzarabani would take his second wicket of the match as he caught Mehidy Hasan Miraz behind for one run, leaving the hosts in trouble at 137/6 from 43.1 overs. Bangladesh could only add nine runs to the board before Bangladesh lost another wicket, Masakadza taking his third, Taijul Islam caught behind for three runs.

Hasan Mahmud scored 19 runs at the end of Bangladesh's innings before being bowled by Muzarabani.

Madhevere picked up the last two wickets of the innings, catching out Jaker Ali off 28 runs and bowling Nahid Rana for a four-ball zero.

Bangladesh have now been bowled out below 200 runs for the sixth time in their last 10 Test matches.

Zimbabwe went on to close the day in style with Bennett and Curran getting runs for fun. Bennett will go into day two on 40 runs from 37 balls, with Curran having 17 runs off 49 balls.

Play resumes at 6AM. The Chronicle