Bangladesh News

Opener Shahriar Nafees notched his first one-day international century to steer Bangladesh safely to a face-saving eight-wicket victory against Zimbabwe in the fifth and final match at the Harare Sports Club ground yesterday.

The win served as a consolation for the Tigers after the Zimbabweans had taken a decisive 3-1 lead in the five-match series winning the fourth one-dayer by seven wickets at the same venue on Friday.

The left-handed opener scored an unbeaten 118, the highest individual score by a Bangladeshi batsman in one-day cricket, as the visitors chased down the home side’s 197 with more than five overs to spare. His 148 balls undefeated knock was studded with a dozen boundaries hit to most parts of the ground.

He became the fourth Bangladeshi to score a hundred after Mehrab Hossain (101), Mohammad Ashraful (100) and Rajin Saleh (108 not out).

Nafees played steadily and was particularly harsh on anything short and outside off-stump. Uncharacteristically, He was also keen on hitting the ball down the ground.

The southpaw shared a 99-run opening wicket stand with right-hander Rajin Saleh, who scored 37 off 59 balls. Debutant Sakib Al Hassan, who came in at four after one-down Aftab Ahmed was out stumped on 128, played with a lot of authority to score an unbeaten 30.

Earlier, the Tigers bowling attack was surprisingly led by part-time off-spinner Saleh as he took career-best figures of four wickets for just 16 runs. He took the vital wicket of Hamilton Masakadza, who scored 75 to keep the Tigers at bay. Left-arm spinner Abdur Razzak took two for 24 while Sakib and seamer Syed Rasel took one each.

The Tigers leave for the Kenyan capital Nairboi today where they will play three one-day internationals beginning from August 12.