Sibanda And Vitori On Song As Zimbabwe Win

Sibanda And Vitori On Song As Zimbabwe Win

Vusi Sibanda fell four runs short of a century in Harare

©REUTERS/Rupak De Chowdhuri (INDIA - Tags: SPORT CRICKET) Picture Supplied by Action Images

Zimbabwe 186-6 (Sibanda 96, Rubel Hossain 4-26) beat
Bangladesh 184 (Vitori 5-30) by four wickets
First One-Day International, Harare
Scorecard

Brian Vitori marked his debut with a five-wicket haul and Vusi Sibanda scored 96 as Zimbabwe beat Bangladesh by four wickets in the first One-Day International in Harare.

Left-arm seamer Vitori returned five for 30 as Bangladesh were bowled out for 184 and Sibanda anchored Zimbabwe's reply as they chased down their target in 41.2 overs.

Vitori's outstanding early spell saw him pick up the wickets of Tamim Iqbal (4), Imrul Kayes (11), Shahriar Nafees (14) and Mohammad Ashraful (2) and when Mahmudullah was caught by Hamilton Masakadza off Elton Chigumbura Bangladesh were in desperate trouble at 43 for five.

Help was at hand as Shakib Al Hasan, who made 53, and Mushfiqur Rahim, who scored 59, put on 105 for the sixth wicket but once they were dismissed, by Masakadza and Prosper Utseya respectively, Zimbabwe wasted little time in ripping through the lower order.

Suhrawadi Shuvo was left unbeaten on 20 as Ray Price had Abdur Razzak caught by Brendan TAylor without scoring, Vitori grabbed his fifth wicket when Shafiul Islam was caught by Sibanda for eight and Rubel Hossain (1) was run out.

Zimbabwe then lost Taylor for ten when he was bowled by Shakib but an 86-run partnership between Sibanda and Masakadza steadied the ship.

Sibanda took advantage of the Power Plays to hit nine fours and two sixes before decelerating later on as Zimbabwe homed in on their target but he was denied a second ODI centry when he was caught by Mahmudullah off Rubel from the 102nd ball he faced.

Masakadza made 41 in 58 balls before he was run out by Mahmudullah and a fine spell from Ruybel saw Tatenda Taibu bowled and Craig Ervine caught behind in consecutive devlieries, neither man making any score.

Forster Mutizwa then made his way to 27 not out and alongside Sibanda, almost brought the game home but there was still time for Rubel to remove Sibanda - caught by Mahmudullah - and Chigumbura (3) to ensure that Zimbabwe didn't have everything their way.

Rubel finished with four for 26 having almost single-handedly led Bangladesh's charge.

The second ODI is on 14th August, again in Harare.

© Cricket World 2011