Sports

Bangladesh level series

Bangladesh level series

By Bangladesh level series

Agence France Presse

Dhaka, January 29:

Manjural Rana and Mohammad Rafique spun Bangladesh to a 58-run victory over Zimbabwe in the fourth one-dayer to level the five-match series 2-2 here on Saturday.

The left-arm spinners bagged four wickets each as Zimbabwe were skittled out for 189 chasing a target of 248. Rana bagged 4-36 and Rafique 4-33 as Zimbabwe squandered a 102-run opening stand between Stuart Matsikenyeri (50) and Barney Rogers (49).

Rana ripped through the top-order while Rafique maintained the pressure as the Zimbabwean innings folded up in 47.2 overs.

Two twin-strikes by Rana, who won his second consecutive man of the match award after returning a career-best 4-34 on Wednesday, broke the back of the visiting side.

Earlier, opener Nafis Iqbal (56) and Khaled Mashud (51) came up with timely knocks to lift the home side to 247-9 after captain Habibul Bashar elected to bat.

Bangladesh established the basis for a competitive total thanks to Iqbal, who slammed his second half-century of the series and added a useful 71 for the second wicket with Aftab Ahmed (44).

The 20-year-old, who had scored 58 in the second one-dayer at Chittagong, struck six fours and a six during his 76-ball innings before he was caught by Matsikenyeri off spinner Prosper Utseya. Mashud later took control of the proceedings with a 62-ball knock, containing a six and two fours. Mashud, who got to his sixth one-day fifty, fell off the next ball as he tried a big shot and was caught by Utseya. Taylor also bagged the wickets of all-rounders Rafique (one) and Mahmud (zero) to finish with 3-54.