1st Test, Sylhet: Bangladesh 26/0 in pursuit of 321 after Taijul Islam’s five

Bangladesh bowled out Zimbabwe for 181 with left-arm spinner Taijul Islam claiming 5/62 to finish with 11 wickets in the Test.

Bangladesh need a further 295 runs to beat Zimbabwe  in the first Test at Sylhet, ending the third day on 26 without loss when bad light forced a premature closure. Crucial to this was bowling out Zimbabwe for 181in their second innings, with left-arm spinner Taijul Islam claiming 5/62 to finish with 11 wickets in the Test.

From an overnight 1/0, the visitors were bowled out in a further 63.4 overs with skipper Hamilton Masakadza and Sean Williams guilty of haphazard reverse-sweeps and Sikandar Raza bowled when playing away and exposing the stumps. Masakadza was the innings’ top-scorer with 48 until he pulled out an ill-advised reverse-sweep against Mehedy Hasan Miraz and was given lbw at 101/3, and then Taijul dismissed Williams – who made 88 in Zimbabwe’s first innings – and Peter Moor to find himself on a hat-trick.

On 20, Williams was the second batsman to fall before lunch when he mistimed a reverse-sweep and was bowled for 20. Next ball, Moor stabbed and got an inside edge straight to silly point. Nine runs later, Raza went back and saw his middle stump pegged back to given Taijul his tenth wicket of the match. His 11th came when Tendai Chatara was ruled lbw to end the innings at 181.

Miraz ended with 3/48 and the debutant Nazmul Islam took 2/27.

In 10.1 overs before bad light forced the players off, Liton Das (14*) and Imrul Kayes (12*) took Bangladesh to 26 for no loss.

Brief scores: Bangladesh 143 & 26/0 need 295 runs to beat Zimbabwe 262 and 181 (Masakadza 48, Taijul 5/62)