Bangladesh end long wait for victory](Yahoo is part of the Yahoo family of brands.)
HARARE (AFP) - Bangladesh ended their five-year wait for victory when they defeated Zimbabwe by eight runs to register only their second ever one-day international win against a Test playing nation.
Bangladesh’s last win came against Pakistan in the 1999 World Cup but Wednesday’s triumph now gives them the opportunity to wrap up the five-match series after the first two games were rained-off.
The win was also revenge for the tourists after they had lost their last ten matches to Heath Streak’s side.
“This was a great victory for us, especially after so long,” said Bangladesh batsman Habibul Bashar who top-scored with 61.
“The tension in the dressing room was almost unbearable. But we managed it.”
Bangladesh reached 238-7 off their 50 overs before they restricted Zimbabwe to 230-9 at the Harare Sports Club.
Their triumph here was based firstly on the recovery powers of Habibul, whose emergence from a mini-slump was most timely, and Rajin Saleh. When the tourists were two down for 20 and scoring at 2.6 an over, Bashar (61) and Saleh (57) consolidated with a third wicket partnership of 114.
Later in the innings man-of-the-match Mohammad Ashraful and Khaled Mahmood were able to launch a vicious attack on the Zimbabweans. Ashraful hit 51 not out in just 32 balls while Mahmood was also in aggressive mood with a rapid 22.
These two scored 89 runs in the last 10 overs, taking Bangladesh to a respectable, and eventually a winning, total of 238.
Ashraful was named man of the match.
In reply, Zimbabwe lost Grant Flower with only 12 runs on the board. But that did not appear to unsettle Stuart Carlisle and Barney Rogers. They hit 71 and 51 respectively, producing a second wicket partnership of 109.
It was Rogers’ first one-day international half-century and Carlisle’s ninth.
Zimbabwe then appeared well on the road to an eleventh successive victory over Bangladesh but when these two went, so did a sequence of Zimbabwe wickets.
The home team lost Tatenda Taibu, Sean Ervine and Dion Ebrahim and were suddenly on the back foot with the scoreboard showing 169-6 and a declining run rate to go with it.
Only Heath Streak remained on the attack, but defensive tactics and top quality fielding kept the Zimbabweans at bay.
When Streak was caught for 30, it was effectively all over.
Seamer Tareq Aziz provided a dazzling conclusion by uprooting the stumps of Stuart Matsikenyere and Douglas Hondo with successive balls. He then just missed out on a hat-trick when Blessing Mahwire drove just wide of Tapash Baishya in the covers.