Clinical Tigers seal series sweep

Bangladesh posted a commanding display of batting to hand visiting Zimbabwe a heavy seven-wicket defeat en route to a 3-0 whitewash in the third and final ODI at Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Cricket Stadium Friday. In-form opener Imrul Kayes (115) and No 3 batsman Soumya Sarker (117) both scored brilliant hundreds to propel the Tigers to a clean sweep of the ODI series.

Chasing 287, Bangladesh cruised to their target within 42.1 overs with seven wickets in hand.

Zimbabwe made the perfect start while defending their total when right-arm pacer Kyle Jarvis took the wicket of opener Liton Kumar Das in the very first ball of the innings. In came Soumya and the scenario changed as both he and Kayes batted with dominance.

The due formed a 220-run partnership for the second wicket, a Bangladesh record eclipsing the previous best second-wicket stand of 207 by opening batsman Tamim Iqbal and all-rounder Shakib al Hasan.  

Runs were coming freely when these two southpaws were at the crease and the Zimbabwe bowlers had no clue as to how to stop them. Kayes reached his fifty before Soumya but later, Soumya took charge and scored quick runs to score his hundred before Imrul.

100! Imrul Kayes gets his 4th century in ODIs, his second in the series.

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— Bangladesh Cricket (@BCBtigers) October 26, 2018

Soumya reached his hundred in just 81 balls with lots of boundaries to his credit. Eventually, he got out for 117 off 92 balls with nine fours and half a dozen sixes. Later, Imrul also completed his century before getting out caught at long off in 39.3 overs. 

Imrul had the chance to break a world record of scoring the highest runs in a three-match series. Pakistan’s Babar Azam scored 360 runs in a three-game series against the West Indies. 

Imrul scored 144 and 90 in the first and second ODI respectively. He needed 127 runs to break the record, but got out on 117.

Wicketkeeper-batsman Mushfiqur Rahim and No 5 batsman Mohammad Mithun were the unbeaten batsmen in the middle when Bangladesh reached their target with 47 balls to spare.

Earlier, Bangladesh captain Mashrafe bin Mortaza once again won the toss and elected to field first. 

200 up for Imrul Kayes and Soumya Sarkar in the 2nd wicket.

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— Bangladesh Cricket (@BCBtigers) October 26, 2018

Bangladesh made three changes to the playing XI from the second ODI at the same venue Wednesday, as Soumya, all-rounder Ariful Haque and Abu Haider Rony replaced top-order batsman Fazle Rabbi Mahmud, youngster Mehedi Hasan Miraz and left-arm pacer Mustafizur Rahman.

Bangladesh started their bowling with all-rounder Saifuddin and Rony and both these pacers gave early breakthroughs. Saifuddin took the wicket of Cephas Zhuwao (nought) in the second over. In the very next over, Rony removed the experienced Hamilton Masakadza (two). Both the batsmen were bowled out.

Bangladesh bowlers kept up the pressure in the first five overs as Zimbabwe were seven for two. But stumper-batsman Brendan Taylor and all-rounder Sean Williams stitched together a brilliant 132-run partnership for the fourth wicket to lift the pressure. 

Taylor was more aggressive among the two as he scored a quickfire fifty. Eventually he got out scoring 75 off 73 balls with eight fours and three sixes. Williams stood tall at the other end and carried his innings all the way. The left-hander played a brilliant knock to pick up his second ODI hundred. He was unbeaten on 129 off 143 balls with 10 fours and one six.   

Sikandar Raza (40 off 51) and Peter Moor (28 off 21) scored some useful runs in the end as the Tigers posted a challenging total of 286 losing five wickets in their stipulated 50 overs.

100! Soumya Sarkar gets his second century in ODIs.

To watch Zimbabwe tour of Bangladesh LIVE, Download the app from the links below and hit the LIVE Button.

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— Bangladesh Cricket (@BCBtigers) October 26, 2018

Left-arm spinner Nazmul Islam Apu took two wickets while Saifuddin and Rony bagged one apiece.

Soumya was adjudged player of the match while Imrul was named man of the series.

3RD ODI

Bangladesh 288/3 in 42.1 overs (Soumya 117, Imrul 115) beat Zimbabwe 286/5 (Williams 129*, Taylor 75) by seven wickets