Ashraful escorts Tigers to victory

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A brilliant century by Mohammad Ashraful enabled Bangladesh to ease to an eight-wicket win over Zimbabwe in the first of the five-match GrameenPhone Cup ODI Series at Bulawayo's Queens Sports Club Sunday, reports bdnews24.com.
Tiny Ashraful stood tall to remain unbeaten on 103 off as many balls as the Tigers chased down the 208-run target in just 34.3 overs. His innings was studded with 12 glorious fours and two sixes.
The second match is Tuesday at the same venue.
It was the former Bangladesh captain's third ODI hundred and first since the career-best 109 made against the UAE in the 2008 Asia Cup in Lahore.
Ashraful's task was made easy by the brisk start provided by the openers Tamim Iqbal and Junaed Siddique. Tamim started off with two fours in the first over - a cut and an off drive - but it was Junaed Siddique who got off the block like a runaway express against Chamu Chibhaba.
He hit three successive off-side boundaries in the second over, a caressed cover drive being the highlight, and followed it with two successive boundaries in the fourth over before hitting one straight to mid-off.
Tamim, who made an aggressive 68-ball 63 featured in a match-winning stand of 138 for the second wicket with Ashraful after Junaed was caught at deep square leg off Chibhabha for a 12-ball 21 after putting on 30 runs.
In the post-match presentation, Zimbabwe captain Prosper Utseya said his batsmen should have applied themselves better early in the innings so that they could have attacked later in the innings.
Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan said the boys did a very good job, and was happy with his team's performance.
Ashraful, naturally named man of the match, said, "My team-mates have supported me though I didn't do well in the Tests against West Indies."
He added that not being captain also reduced the burden on him and allowed him to play more freely.
Earlier, Mark Vermeulen hit a fluent 92 on his comeback after five years but Bangladesh applied the squeeze to restrict Zimbabwe to 207 in 47.5 overs.
While Vermeulen put a price on his wicket during his 128-ball stay, the same could not be said for his team-mates after being put in to bat by Bangladesh.