HARARE, Feb 6: Four wickets from Gary Brent and an unbeaten 93 from Vusi Sibanda guided Zimbabwe to a decisive eight-wicket victory over Bangladesh here on Tuesday in the second of the four-match ODI series.
The hosts’ win brought the series to 1-1 and also broke a losing sequence that stretched back 13 One-day Internationals.
“This was a really good and much needed performance, giving us great morale with which to go into the next match,” said Zimbabwe captain Prosper Utseya said.
“Sibanda was outstanding today, as was Brent. But it was essentially an all-round effort.”
It was arguably Zimbabwe's most decisive win over their frequent rivals at the foot of the ICC rankings.
And to add injury to insult Mohammad Rafique's face and Sibanda's helmet accidentally clashed in mid-pitch, causing the veteran Bangladeshi all-rounder to leave the field with a bloodied nose for x-rays.
Bangladesh had struggled in their innings to 153 all out, a target which Zimbabwe reached with more than 14 overs in hand.
The tourists had lost their first two wickets for only five runs early in the day after deciding to bat and their seventh wicket fell at 81.
Rafique and Mushfiqur Rahim brought some respectability to the tail-end of the innings with a 56-run partnership. But it was nowhere near enough.
Brent's 4-30 in 10 overs was not quite a career best (4-22) but it was more than enough to bludgeon Bangladesh into submission. At one stage he had captured three weeks for two only runs.
Scoreboard
BANGLADESH:
Shahriar Nafees c Sibanda b Mpofu 1
Mehrab Hossain c Duffin b Mpofu 2
Aftab Ahmed c Utseya b Brent 24
Saqibul Hasan c Masakadza b Brent 22
Habibul Bashar b Brent 0
Mohammad Ashraful c Taylor b Williams 16
Mushfiqur Rahim c Dabengwa b Williams 27
Mashrafe Mortaza st Taylor b Williams 2
Mohammad Rafique c and b Brent 40
Abdur Razzak not out 10
Shahadat Hossain lbw b Ireland 1
EXTRAS (LB-1, W-7) 8
TOTAL (all out; 46 overs) 153
FALL OF WKTS: 1-2, 2-5, 3-49, 4-49, 5-50, 6-73, 7-81, 8-137, 9-140.