It was an incredible display of nerves from 20-year-old Shamim Hossain Patwari, playing only his second international game, as he scored an unbeaten 31 off 15 balls to seal the game for the visitors and also win the T20I series 2-1. Along with Shamim, Soumya Sarkar and skipper Mahmudullah too made valuable contributions with the bat to chase down a stiff target of 194 in 20 overs.
Joining at 150-4 in the 16th over with only 27 balls left and 44 runs to get, Shamim was slow to start and gave the strike to senior partner and skipper Mahmuddulah. However, he was at full flow in the 18th over. With Bangladesh needing 27 from the last three, Shamimn hit DionMyers for three fours in a row on the last three balls of the 18th cover, having taken a double on the third delivery.
It was game-changing stuff as after that over, it came down to almost run a ball with 13 needed from two overs and the Tigers completed the formalities with much ease, winning the game by five wickets with four balls to spare.
The chase of such a huge target wasn’t started in a great manner by Bangladesh as Mohammad Naim was out for three in the third over with the team score having reached only 20.
The experience of Shakib Al Hasan and Sarkar then came into play as they added 50 off 32 balls to lay the foundation for batters to follow. The 28-year-old Sarkar then added 63 with Mahmudullah for the third wicket, reaching his second fifty of the series. He fell for 68 trying to accelerate the innings when the team score was 133 and the Tigers needed 61 to win from 39 balls.
Soon enough Afif Hossain, who had been performing well on this tour, too got out and it all came down to young Shamim and skipper Mahmudullah.
Earlier in the day, after winning the toss a third time in a row, Zimbabwe skipper Sikandar Raza once again decided to bat first. The openers Tadiwanashe Marumani and Wessley Madhever gave a flying start to the team adding 63 in the first six overs of the game.
As was the case in the first two matches, Regis Chaklabva was once again in form, hitting 48 off just 22 balls before being caught in the deep trying one shot too many. Madhevere hit his second half-century of the series and third in the last five T20Is.
However, once these two along with skipperRaza departed, the runs became slow to come by. It then took a great effort from left-hander Ryan Burl who hit unbeaten 31 off 15 balls to take his team past 190.
Sarkar, for his 68 and a wicket in this game was chosen Man of the Match while for his overall performance of 126 runs and three wickets in three games, he was also awarded Man of the Series award. By winning the T20I series, Bangladesh ended the tour with a 3-0 record in their favour having won the one-off Test and the ODI series which were also played at the Harare Sports Club earlier.