A second Test century from Hamilton Masakadza and the late dismissal of dangerous Bangladesh batsman Shahriar Nafeez gave Zimbabwe the upper hand on the second day of their one-off Test at the Harare Sports Club on Friday.
Zimbabwe, who had been 264 for two overnight, were all out for 370 in their first innings before Bangladesh replied with a 107-3 at stumps to leave them 263 in arrears at the close of play with seven wickets remaining.
Masakadza (104) clawed his way to a second Test century — 10 years after his first — as he put on 142 for the third wicket with skipper Brendan Taylor, who made 71.
It was Taylor’s fourth Test half century, but once he was out, Zimbabwe lost their remaining seven wickets for just 66 runs.
“We knew that Bangladesh would come out and bowl better this morning, especially with Robiul Islam bowling 12 overs in succession and keeping to their game plan,” Taylor said.
“But we know that although we retain the advantage in this match there is a long way to go,” he added.
Bangladesh started fighting back by snatching four wickets in the 30 minutes before lunch. After capturing both Masakadza and Taylor with a double breakthrough, seamer Robiul Islam had changed the tone of the game when Craig Ervine (six) and Elton Chigumbura (five) were bundled out in short order as lunchtime approached.
After the break Brian Vitori, Kyle Jarvis, Raymond Price and Christopher Mpofu were all quickly disposed of with only former skipper Tatenda Taibu, with 23, offering any real resistance. Rubel Hossain and captain Shakib Al Hassan took three wickets each.
In reply, Bangladesh lost both openers by the time they had reached 36.
Left-armer Brian Vitori marked his Test debut by dismissing Imrul Kayes (four) and and flamboyant Tamim Iqbal (15).
Shahriar Nafeez and Mohammad Ashraful (34 not out) then launched a Bangladesh recovery, putting on 66 for the third wicket before Nafeez was bowled by off-spinner Price with a ball off his legs for 50 as the shadows lengthened.
It was Nafeez’s fifth Test half-ton and he hit six fours.
Juventus on Sunday stopped Inter from replacing SSC Napoli at the top of Serie A by beating their fierce rivals 1-0 and moving into the UEFA Champions League positions. Francisco Conceicao made sure that Napoli would stay two points ahead of reigning champions Inter by classily tucking home the winning goal 16 minutes before the end of an entertaining contest in Turin. Portugal attacker Conceicao netted his fourth goal of the season in all competitions after brilliant work from Randal Kolo Muani to give Juve a third straight league win. Juve are in fourth place on 46 points, ahead on goal-difference from SS
The Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) is considering reducing its pitch clock by two seconds to help players better adjust to the rules applied at the World Baseball Classic (WBC). The proposal aims to shorten the pitch timer from 25 seconds to 23 seconds with the bases empty, and from 20 seconds to 18 seconds with runners on base. Currently, the WBC mandates that pitchers deliver a pitch every 18 seconds with the bases empty and 15 seconds with runners on base. The issue was raised during a pre-season CPBL managers’ meeting on Tuesday by Rakuten Monkeys bench and batting
BELGIANS ADVANCE: Club Brugge gave Atalanta a lesson in efficiency, as Gian Piero Gasperini’s team had 29 efforts at goal, compared with seven from the visitors Seldom has a player’s sending off had such an influence on a game. AC Milan was to left rue Theo Hernandez’s second yellow card — for diving — as Feyenoord advanced to the UEFA Champions League last 16 at the former European champion’s expense with a 1-1 draw in the second leg of their playoff on Tuesday, giving the Dutch team a 2-1 win on aggregate. Bayern Munich, Club Brugge and Benfica also won their playoffs, eliminating Celtic, UEFA Europa League winner Atalanta BC and French team AS Monaco respectively. “In soccer everything changes in a second,” said Milan forward
Starting with three fights in the first nine seconds and ending with a celebration and a spot in the 4 Nations Face-Off final, the US on Saturday delivered exactly what Matthew Tkachuk hoped for by beating Canada. “We needed to send a message,” Tkachuk said. “The message we wanted to send is ‘It’s our time.’” Tkachuk fought Brandon Hagel off the opening faceoff, brother Brady tussled with Sam Bennett the next time the puck dropped, J.T. Miller dropped the gloves with Colton Parayko next and the Americans followed those fisticuffs with a 3-1 victory over their biggest rival. “That was one of the
RSS