da gbg bet： The second One-Day International between Zimbabwe and Bangladesh began undercloudy skies, but with no immediate prospect of rain
da spicy bet： John Ward08-Apr-2001The second One-Day International between Zimbabwe and Bangladesh began undercloudy skies, but with no immediate prospect of rain. Zimbabwe in their 50overs were able to manage only 230 for seven, but the conditions made fastscoring very difficult; Bangladesh were never able to mount a challenge andwere dismissed for 103.
Campbell- 103 runs
Photo AFP
The pitch for the day was closer cut than that for the first match, so wasexpected to be a little more favourable for batting, although the thickoutfield remained a handicap. However, due to the underlying moisture itwas again likely to help the seamers early on, and by winning the toss forthe second time Bangladesh had the chance to make amends for their error ofSaturday and this time put Zimbabwe in to bat. It is unfortunate that onthis ground the toss should so often be crucial to the course of the match.Zimbabwe played the same team, while Bangladesh made the surprising move ofdropping their one Test centurion Aminul Islam to bring in all-rounderMehrab Hossain, in an effort to strengthen their bowling.Alistair Campbell made a good start by pulling the second ball from MonjurulIslam to the boundary, but when the bowlers put the ball in the right placethe batsmen struggled at first. Two fine straight drives by Campbell were soslowed by the outfield that they failed to reach the boundary, and it wasobvious that the aerial route would be more profitable if they could avoidthe fielders. The bowling was not quite consistently accurate enough to putthe batsmen under pressure to score, and the opening pair managed three anover before Whittall (16) holed out to long leg with the score on 49.As Stuart Carlisle joined Campbell the scoring rate gradually moved up tofour, reached at the same time as the century partnership. Runs came in amixture of steady accumulation and big hits, Carlisle reaching his fiftywith a six off the long-suffering Naimur Rahman before skying a big hit tothe keeper to depart for 56; 182 for two, and the partnership of 133 was thesecond-best for Zimbabwe’s second wicket in one-day internationals.Alistair Campbell lashed the next ball through extra cover for his seventhTest century, but then holed out to long-on for 103.Wickets then fell in a flurry as the batsmen were prepared to sacrificeeverything in the chase for runs, but with limited success, as the bowlersmanaged to keep matters under control and the conditions hindered quickscoring. But Bangladesh would have to bat magnificently to win.However, the Bangladesh top order again failed against the Zimbabwe seamers, twowickets falling for nine runs and four for 41, altogether two umpiringdecisions were perhaps dubious: Al-Shahriar’s lbw may have been a littlehigh, while Meerab Hossain was caught at the wicket off a ball from Streakthat was above shoulder height. Streak in fact had an unimpressive andinconsistent opening spell.Naimur Rahman (25) tried gallantly to fight his way out of trouble but hechopped a ball from Dirk Viljoen on to his stumps, to make Bangladesh 76 forfive. Then came a steady decline, with opening batsman Javed Omarrock-solid at one end and the tail declining steadily. At one stage thescoreboard briefly named the two current batsmen as Omar and Sharif, but thelatter (Mohammad of that name) quickly perished without scoring.The hundred came up with the last pair together but the innings closed for103 in the 31st over, giving Zimbabwe victory by 127 runs. Omar became thefirst batsman to carry his bat through an innings against Zimbabwe, andfinished on 33.It was a disappointing two days for Bangladesh, whose great problem wastheir inexperience. There were perhaps in the region of 3,000 spectators oneach day and they had the pleasure of seeing their team win, but the cricketwas not the most entertaining, and for that the disappointing state of theground was largely responsible.
