Luke Jongwe removes Mehidy Hasan & Afif Hossain as Chakabva does a Dhoni to help Zimbabwe record team hattrick

It was going all nicely for Bangladesh until; the 49th over in their clash against Zimbabwe in the first of the three-match ODI series at Harare Sports Club. But in the 49th over by Luke Jongwe, they lost three wickets in a row, helping the hosts record a team hattrick. 

Jongwe, after being hit for a six on the second ball of his overcame back strong and got the six-hitter Mehidy Hasan Miraz caught at the deep extra cover on the third delivery. Afif Hossain, who went on strike as the batters had crossed while the catch was taken, tried to play a scoop over fine leg and in response exposed his wickets which were hit with a bull’s eye by the 26-year-old bowler. 

On a hattrick, the right arm pacer bowled a wide down the leg to Taskin Ahmed. In his next attempt, Jongwe bowled a full-length delivery on the legs which was dragged down to deep square leg by Ahmed. The batsmen ran two but a brilliant piece of work by wicketkeeper Regis Chakabva had Ahmed short of his ground before the bails were broken. 

The run-out dismissal was Dhnisque in ways more than one. First of all, Chakabva received a throw that was way off the mark and the 33-year-old wicket-keeper picked it and without even looking at the stumps, hit the woodwork with the ball passing through his legs. And suddenly from 265-6, they were 266-8. 

Earlier, after being asked to bat by Zimbabwe skipper Brendan Taylor, who was playing his 200th ODI game, Bangladesh didn’t have a good start. They lost their skipperTamim who went out without disturbing the scorers and thereby achieved a feat which he wouldn’t want on his  CV. Iqbal with this duck now has most ducks for a Bangladeshi batter (34 in total) across formats and he surpassed his predecessor as Bangladesh skipper Mashrafe Mortaza who has 33 ducks to his kitty. 

Other batters including star performer Shakib Al Hasan couldn’t do much either as the Tigers slumped to 74-4. It then took a combined effort from the centurions from the Test a week ago, Mahmudullah and Liton Das to stage another recovery for their team.

The duo added 93 for the fifth wicket. While Mahmudullah was out for a mere 33, 26-year-old Das went on to score his fourth ODI hundred. He made 102 of 114 balls. But his wicket in the 42nd over with the Bangladesh score at 207, but the hosts in a spot of bother before Afif and Mehidy combined to get them to a respectable total. While Afif scored 45, the number two ranked ODI bowler Mehidy scored 25 balls 26.