Brian Vitori became the first Zimbabwean to take five wickets on his one-day international debut as the home side beat Bangladesh by four wickets in the first of five ODIs at Harare Sports Club here on Friday. Despite a late wobble, Zimbabwe chased a below-par total with relative ease after Brian Vitori sliced through the Bangladesh top order to become the first Zimbabwe bowler to take five wickets on ODI debut. The chase was anchored by a mature innings from Vusi Sibanda, who coped easily with Bangladesh’s arsenal of left-arm spinners and made sure that the late strikes from Rubel Hossain were in vain.
Bangladesh’s bowlers were inconsistent early on and they posed little threat to the Zimbabwe batsmen, in contrast to the way Zimbabwe’s bowlers had executed their plans when the visitors batted. Led by debutant left-arm seamer Vitori, Zimbabwe restricted Bangladesh to 184 on a flat pitch. Shakib Al Hasan and Mushfiqur Rahim’s century partnership for the sixth-wicket resuscitated the innings, which stood on the brink of implosion at 43 for 5 in the 17th over, but it did not do enough to post a defendable total.
With Chris Mpofu, Vitori made exceptional use of the early bounce on offer and bowled a tight line, offering no width to the Bangladesh batsmen. That forced them to be circumspect in their approach, refusing to move their feet or look for singles, and they made a slow start to their innings.
After two overs of teasing swing, Vitori offered Tamim Iqbal a short ball and the Bangladesh opener took the bait with a horribly timed pull that was safely taken by Elton Chigumbura at mid-on. Vitori bowled an extended eight-over spell and earned regular reward. Bangladesh continued to free-fall and even Chigumbura, who was the least threatening of the bowlers, picked up a wicket, when Mahmudullah slapped a full and wide delivery to backward point.
Shakib should have been stumped on 17, when he danced down the track to an Utseya delivery but Tatenda Taibu was not able to get the bails off in time. He capitalised on his lifeline and continued scoring at a good rate all around the wicket to notch up his half century. Mushfiqur provided solid support, puncturing the gaps in a spread field. Zimbabwe set off at a canter, dealing with the first three overs of seam bowling with disdain. Spin was introduced early with Abdur Razzak and Shakib taking over from the fourth over. Shakib had success with his second delivery, bowling his opposite number, The left-arm spin didn’t frighten Sibanda, who played with characteristically nifty footwork and struck two straight drives in the next over. That prompted Shakib to make a third bowling change and bring on Shuvo inside 10 overs.
Sibanda and Hamilton Masakadza settled comfortably, ran well between the wickets and scored at a rapid rate, dealing with everyone from Shakib to Mahmudullah with ease.
