Chigumbura rues repetition of mistakes

Elton Chigumbura had very little to say after conceding the series in the third ODI, and he has two more matches and potentially two more early press conferences to attend.

The only positive from a 124-run defeat is that they will have two months before the World Cup to shed away the memories and regroup. But for now, they have been unable to reach the 200-mark in any of the three ODIs, despite good batting conditions.

Their bowling did not have the best tour either and conceded 103 runs in the last 10 overs in Mirpur. Bangladesh benefited from their lack of threat as Tamim Iqbal and Anamul Haque added 120 runs for the opening stand in 25.5 overs that provided a perfect foundation for the lower order to spring from.

Chigumbura lamented the bowling effort and said losing early wickets dented their chances. "It was another disappointment," he said. "Same old stuff, same old mistakes. I guess if we keep repeating the same thing we keep getting the same result. We changed the team, but we repeated the same mistakes.

"Today it was disappointing on the bowling side. We didn't bowl as well as we wanted. So obviously, any team chasing 290 is always in a tough fight. We didn't help ourselves by losing early wickets again, it could have been better if we'd had wickets in hand."

There was a suggestion that perhaps the tour has been too long for Zimbabwe. Chigumbura said that it was not an excuse, but he was hopeful that he can leave the worries of Bangladesh behind and prepare for the World Cup in February.

"I can't say it [tour] is long because the guys who played Test cricket, some of them are not the same guys [in the ODI squad]. So I can't say it's been long tour, that's not why we are playing like this. It's just that we are repeating the same old mistakes of losing wickets.

"These are different conditions than the one we will face in the World Cup," Chigumbura said. "The worry is just here and not in the World Cup, because we are kind of used to more similar wickets to the ones that we are going to be facing in the World Cup. It's not really a worry looking at the World Cup; it is just a worry in this series."

Chigumbura added that the visitors' concentration moves to avoiding a second whitewash on the tour. "We just have to redeem ourselves and make sure losing 3-2 is better than losing 5-0. We are still playing for the win and we are going to come hard in the last two games."