Abdur Razzak

Fresh from his hat-trick in the second ODI, Abdur Razzak continued his rich vein of form as he bowled a miserly spell of 4/14 in his 10 overs as Bangladesh successfully defended a total of 246 and took the lead in the 5 match series.

After being put into bat, Bangladesh got off to the worst possible start as they were reduced to 5/2 with Tamim Iqbal and Junaid Siddique both sent back to the pavilion. Prosper Utseya, captaining the squad in place of Elton Chigumbara, picked up Raqibul Hasan and Imrul Kayes and Bangladesh were reduced to 71/4 in the 20^th over.

Skipper Shakib Al Hasan, who by now must have got used to doing the repair work, teamed up with keeper Mushfiqur Rahim as they put up a 116 run partnership for the 5^th wicket. Utseya, who came back into the attack, had Rahim caught at square leg for 63. Shakib carried on and put some useful partnerships with the tailenders. Some loose bowling in the end gifted Bangladesh 30 runs in the last 2 overs as they put on a decent 246/7, Shakib once again coming to their rescue with a delightful 73.

It took only 3 overs of the Zimbabwe chase for Shakib to bring on his left arm spinner Abdur Razzak into the attack and it took him only 4 balls to strike a blow as he trapped Chibhabha right in front. Four overs later, Masakadza stepped out and was stumped and a couple of overs later Taylor edged Razzak to first slip. By the 15^th over, Ervine and Taibu were also back in the hut and when Razzak dismissed Chakabva, the score read 47/6 and Zimbabwe were well and truly out of the game. Utseya lent some respectability to the score card with some big hitting as he made 67. But with no support from the other end, Zimbabwe folded up for 181 giving Bangladesh a 65 run victory and a 2-1 lead. Razzak picked up his second successive Man of the Match award as Bangladesh will now look to wrap up the series as the action shifts to Chittagong.

Tags: Abdur Razzak, Bangladesh, Cricket, ODI Match, ODI Series, Sports, Zimbabwe