Nayeem Hasan's guile and deception proved too good for the visitors as Bangladesh ended the one-off Test in Mirpur this Tuesday (February 25) with a dominating win over Zimbabwe.
Hasan, the off-spinner, bagged figures of 4/70 and 5/82 to allow the home team to finish with an innings and 106 run-victory.
Left-arm spinner Taijul Islam also took four wickets (4/78) as Zimbabwe found survival extremely difficult on a deteriorating surface to be eventually dismissed for just 189 in the second innings.
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Earlier in the Test, Hasan's first-innings spell, backed in earnest by pacer Abu Jayed (4/70), helped the home team skittle out the visitors for 265 despite having to bowl first after losing the toss; skipper Craig Ervine (107) scored a terrific hundred and opener Prince Masvaure (64) contributed a fine half-century but a middle-order collapse meant the Zimbabweans were never in command of the proceedings.
Bangladesh then overhauled the visiting team's total by a massive margin of 295 runs, with Mushfiqur Rahim (203*) piling on an unbeaten double century, captain Mominul Haque (132) making a solid hundred and Tamim Iqbal (41), Najmul Hossain Shanto (71) and Liton Das (53) also adding to the misery for the Zimbabwe bowlers.
This was a morale-boosting win for Bangladesh after successive innings defeats in Indore, Kolkata and Rawalpindi on tours to India and Pakistan, and also first win of Mominul's captaincy tenure.
"I don't think it is a difficult start to my captaincy career," he said after the win. "Yes, we have to win more matches and I am happy with the way we played in this game. Everyone has got confidence from this win. Nayeem is doing very well and even Shanto but at the end it is all about team performance. I try to put up a big score and happy to contribute to the team."
Brief scores:
Zimbabwe 265/10 (Craig Ervine 107; Nayeem Hasan 4/70) & 189/10 (Craig Ervine 43; Nayeem Hasan 5/82) lost to Bangladesh 560/6 declared (Mushfiqur Rahim 203*; Ainsley Ndlovu 2/170) by an innings and 106 runs
(Inputs from Cricbuzz)
