Elton Chigumbura impressed with ball and bat as Zimbabwe handed Bangladesh a crushing five-wicket defeat in the first One Day International cricket match at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium here Tuesday.
The 23-year-old man of the match took three top order wickets to restrict Bangladesh to 186 and then scored a brilliant 60 off 50 balls to seal the victory for the visitors with more than 15 overs to spare.
Zimbabwe were down at 90 for five, with most of their top batsmen back in the pavilion, but Chigumbura and Stuart Matsikenyeri notched up an unbeaten 99 partnership on the sixth wicket to take them one-up in the five-match series.
"That partnership got us through," said vice-captain Hamilton Masakadza, who led the side for the better part of the match after captain Prosper Utseya suffered a freak ankle injury while celebrating a catch.
Chigumbura said he exploited early movements on the wicket after his captain won the toss and elected to field and was confident his team would easily chase the Bangladesh total if they could play 50 overs.
"I know that if we got a big partnership, we will easily win," he said.
Bangladesh's chances for a decent total vanished after they lost six wickets for 62, with Chigumbura removing dangermen Tamim Iqbal and Mohammad Ashraful and Chibhabha dismissing captain Shakib Al Hasan-- all edged to the wicketkeeper.
Mushfiqur Rahim played a lone hand in the lower order, scoring steadfast 56 while medium pacer Dolar Mahmud hit a quickfire 41 off 30 balls coming to bat at number 10 to give the hosts' total some respectability.
Bangladesh, who won 15 of their 19 matches and beat Zimbabwe 4-1 in an away series in August, seemed to have staged a comeback into the match in the eighth over when left arm spinner Abdur Razzak snapped up three wickets in his first over.
Pacer Rubel Hossain got rid of in-form Masakdza and Dolar Mahmud picked off Charles Coventry, who equalled Sayed Anwar's highest one-day score in August, to push Bangladesh back into the match.
But Matsikenyeri (47) and Chigumbura held their nerve against some quality spin and smashed the pacers to guide the visitors home. Chigumbura celebrated his 12th 50 (46 balls) hitting six off Bangladesh captain Shakib.
The two sides meet at the same venue in their second one-day match on Thursday.
Copyright 2009 AFP Global Edition
