Zimbabwe off to a winning start

Zimbabweans 221 for 8 (Matsikenyeri 49, Hossain 3-34) beat Bangladesh Cricket Board President's XI 195 (Chowdhury 42, Brent 3-32) by 26 runs
Scorecard

Anthony Ireland appeals in vain for an leg-before decision © AFP

Zimbabwe got their tour off to a winning start with a 26-run victory over a Bangladesh Cricket Board President's XI at the BKSP cricket ground in Dhaka.

Zimbabwe won the toss and Stuart Matsikenyeri anchored the innings with 49 from 61 balls, including four fours and three sixes. He was ably supported by Mluleki Nkala (37) who was standing in as captain for the injured Prosper Utseya. Mosharraf Hossain was the pick of the bowlers with 3 for 34 and Tapash Baishya weighed in with 3 for 50. The home side never overcame the loss of early wickets, and their hopes were virtually wiped out by a mid-innings wobble.

"It was a good test for the guys because most of them had time at the crease," said Kevin Curran, Zimbabwe's coach. "The bowlers also got some valuable overs. We batted well, especially Stuart. But a competitive score would have been about 240, so we were short of that.

"Our ground fielding also let us down as we let through 20-25 runs. If we had stopped them, we would have bowled the BCB President's XI out much earlier. It was good that we won in the end but we made the margin much narrower that it should have been."

Zimbabwe now travel to Khulna for a Twenty20 match against Bangladesh on Tuesday, and the first ODI on Thursday. &