HARARE - Zimbabwe A lost by six wickets on the final day of the first unofficial Test against Bangladesh A in Cox’s Bazar yesterday.
The hosts needed just 23.2 overs to wrap up a match they dominated with the ball from day one, having resumed from the third day needing just 61 runs with nine wickets in hand.
Zimbabwe spinners Wellington Masakadza, Tino Mutombodzi and Kuda Munyede picked a wicket each but could not deny the budding Tigers a well-deserved victory.
Masakadza, with his first innings fiver-for and two wickets in the second innings, was the tourists’ most outstanding bowler with eight wickets for 109 runs from 53 overs.
Fellow spinner Mutombodzi took five wickets for 59 runs from 31.4 overs in a match pace bowlers struggled in spin-friendly conditions. No seamer was able to take a wicket for both teams.
Bangladesh left-arm spinner Saqlain Sajib — with 15 wickets, nine of which were all in Zimbabwe’s first innings — was man-of-the-match.
Sajib’s onslaught condemned Zimbabwe A to 206 all out before the hosts totalled 211 in their first innings.
The Zimbabweans were then dismissed for 108, with Sajib taking six wickets, before Bangladesh A opener Litton Das top-scored with 42 in pursuit of the winning target.
The two sides meet in the second and final unofficial Test series scheduled to begin on Sunday at Fatullah.