Zimbabwe clinch landmark win over Bangladesh
HARARE, Zimbabwe, Aug 3, (AP): Ryan Burl rescued Zimbabwe from 67-6 and gave it a good enough total to beat Bangladesh by 10 runs and clinch their first Twenty20 series over a full ICC member.
Burl’s 54 from 28 balls batting at No. 7 propelled the home team to 156-8 at Harare Sports Club.
Bangladesh only managed 1468 in its 20 overs and Zimbabwe claimed the series-deciding third game for a small slice of history.
Zimbabwe has been playing T20 cricket since 2006 and hadn’t beaten a fellow top-tier team in a multigame series before.
The win capped a good few weeks for one of cricket’s strugglers after
Zimbabwe won a qualifying tournament on home soil last month to seal a place at the T20 World Cup in Australia in October and November.
Burl’s contribution was invaluable after Zimbabwe’s top order failed. He hit two fours and six sixes in his half-century and four of those sixes came in the same over as he plundered 34 runs off Nasum Ahmed in the 15th over.
Luke Jongwe supported Burl with 35 off 20 and their lower-order partnership of 79 off 31 deliveries set up Zimbabwe’s victory.
Afif Hossain top-scored for Bangladesh with 39 not out and the tourists threatened, but Zimbabwe held them off with the help of seamer Victor
Nyauchi’s 3-29.
Seam bowler Ollie Robinson was recalled by England on Tuesday for the first two cricket Tests against South Africa this month.
The series begins at Lord’s on Aug.
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17, moves to Old Trafford, and finishes at the Oval from Sept. 8.
Robinson has not played for England since the Ashes ended in January mainly due to back issues. He went to the West Indies in March but suffered from back spasms and came home.
Last week, he took nine wickets for Sussex in the English County Championship, and will have another chance to prove his fitness and form next week for the Lions in a four-day match against South Africa.
If Robinson, who has 39 wickets in nine tests at an average of 21.28, comes through the Lions match unscathed, he will compete with James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Craig Overton and Matthew Potts for one of the seamer positions at Lord’s.
Robinson has replaced the injured Jamie Overton in the 14-man squad, which is otherwise unchanged from the New Zealand and India Tests. Opening batsman Zak Crawley was retained despite a run of low scores.