Zimbabwe beat BD to take early series lead

Already under pressure after losing the one-off Test and the ODI series, Bangladesh showcased another disappointing display to concede an early lead against Zimbabwe in the T20I leg of the tour on Wednesday.

Zimbabwe's pacer duo Blessing Muzarabani and Richard Ngarava hauled four wickets each, which helped the hosts to cruise to a comprehensive victory by 32 runs in the first T20I in Bulawayo, report agencies.

Bangladesh made a positive start during their chase of 171, as the openers managed a boundary each off Sikandar Raza in the first over. However, Ngarava's picked up Saif Hassan's wicket while he attempted to pull. Three balls later, another short ball from Zimbabwe's ODI and Test skipper accounted for the wicket of Tanzid Hasan Tamim as Bangladesh found themselves in early trouble.

Muzarabani inflicted more damage by striking in the following over to reduce Bangladesh to 43/3 in the Powerplay.

Yasir Ali and Towhid Hridoy built an important stand, but before they could even entertain hopes of aiding Bangladesh to get back on track, the partnership was broken as Hridoy found Milton Shumba in the deep. A needless run out then reduced Bangladesh to 78/5 but Yasir continued his innings and smashed his third six of the innings before reaching 50. Bangladesh remained in the hunt at 113/5 after 15 overs, needing another 58 from the final five overs.

However, Zimbabwe got another wicket in the 17th over when Muzarabani returned for his final spell to break the half-century stand. Ngarava bagged the key wicket of Yasir in the very next over and followed it up with the dismissal of Mohammad Saifuddin to end Bangladesh's hopes. Muzarabani picked up the final two wickets in the penultimate over to finish, finishing with a striking 4-1-17-4 in his four overs.

Zimbabwe breached the 170-run mark in the first innings thanks to significant contributions from multiple batsmen.

Asked to bat first, Zimbabwe's Brian Bennett hammered seven boundaries, including four sixes for his 44 off 30 balls. Tadiwanashe Marumani hit back-to-back sixes off Mahedi Hasan in the third over. In just 2.2 overs, Zimbabwe had raced to 34/0 to put Bangladesh on the backfoot.

Marumani's dismissal put the brakes on the scoring rate as Nahid Rana dismissed well-set Bennett at half-way point. Rana, who had brilliant figures of 3/8 from 3 overs came on to bowl the final over and conceded four boundaries by Evans which helped Zimbabwe to pull off a cool finish.