Muzarabani, Ngarava give Zimbabwe early series lead

Four-wicket hauls from Zimbabwe's leading pace duo - Blessing Muzarabani and Richard Ngarava - helped the hosts inflict another loss on Bangladesh as they beat the Asian side comprehensively by 32 runs in the first T20I in Bulawayo. Already under pressure after losing the one-off Test and the ODI series, Bangladesh put on another shoddy display to concede an early lead in the T20I leg of the tour.

Chasing a stiff 171, Bangladesh made a positive start when the openers fetched a boundary each off Sikandar Raza in the first over. However, Ngarava's introduction did the trick as Saif Hassan got a tickle through to the keeper while attempting a pull. Three balls later, another short ball from Zimbabwe's ODI and Test skipper accounted for the other opener as Bangladesh found themselves in early trouble. Muzarabani wasn't left far behind as he inflicted more damage by striking in the following over to reduce Bangladesh to 43/3 in the Powerplay.

Yasir Ali and Towhid Hridoy batted in decent fashion to stem the rot and build an important stand. But before they could even entertain hopes of aiding Bangladesh to get back on track in the run chase, the partnership was broken as Hridoy found the fielder in the deep. A needless run out then reduced Bangladesh to 78/5 but Yasir refused to throw in the towel just yet. He continued to play some extravagant strokes and smashed his third six of the innings before reaching his half-century. After 15 overs, Bangladesh remained in the hunt at 113/5, needing another 58 from the final five overs.

However, Zimbabwe were always just one wicket away from getting a crack at the tail. That wicket arrived in the 17th over of the chase when Muzarabani returned for his final spell to break the half-century stand. That opened the floodgates again as Ngarava bagged the key wicket of Yasir in the very next over and followed it up with the dismissal of Mohammad Saifuddin to end Bangladesh's hopes. Muzarabani then put the visitors out of their misery by adding the final two wickets to his tally in the penultimate over to finish with terrific figures of 4-1-17-4.

Earlier in the day, significant contributions from multiple batters helped Zimbabwe breach the 170-run mark. Asked to bat first, Zimbabwe made a rollicking start when Brian Bennett smashed the first ball of the contest for a boundary before bringing out the scoop just three balls later to stun Taskin Ahmed and Bangladesh. Registering low scores in the ODIs, Bennett batted with purpose as he hammered a four and a six off successive deliveries in the next over as well before Tadiwanashe Marumani showcased his talents with back-to-back sixes off Mahedi Hasan. In just 2.2 overs, Zimbabwe had raced to 34/0 to put Bangladesh on the backfoot.

The visitors recovered though after the initial onslaught as Marumani's dismissal put the brakes on the scoring rate. With Nahid Rana dismissing the well-set Bennett at the half-way point, Zimbabwe had to recover again to finish on a high. But every time the hosts appeared to find momentum on the back of a few boundaries, Bangladesh kept striking with key wickets. In the end, it was a vital cameo from Brad Evans that ruined the visitors' efforts. Rana, who had extraordinary figures of 3/8 from 3 overs until then, came on to bowl the final over in which he was smashed for four boundaries by Evans that helped Zimbabwe finish on a high.

Brief Scores: Zimbabwe 170/6 in 20 overs (Brian Bennett 44, Ryan Burl 30, Brad Evans 19*; Nahid Rana 3-26) beat Bangladesh 138 in 19 overs (Yasir Ali 54; Blessing Muzarabani 4-17, Richard Ngarava 4-26) by 32 runs