Bangladesh play Zimbabwe in the fourth ODI of the five-match series and the action now moves to the Zohur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chittagong. Bangladesh lead 2-1 in the series after losing the first game and will look to seal the series with a win. Zimbabwe will want to prove that their first game win was no fluke.
With the Bangladeshi captain Shakib al Hasan getting the team that he wanted, the results have begun to show as well. The one obvious man who is making a huge difference to the side, and as acknowledged by the Zimbabwean coach, Alan Butcher as well, is Abdur Razzaq. Razzaq’s haul of 13 wickets has come at an average of 6.53 and that can hardly be great viewing for the opposition.
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There cannot be too much doubt that the Zimbabwean batting needs to improve against Razzaq and the other spinners. One got the feeling that they had decided to play out Razzaq and score at the other end, but the left-arm spinners’ amazing bowling meant that even a defensive Zimbabwean batting saw the side collapse rather badly.
It will be interesting to see what the tourists come up with to counter Razzaq in the fourth game.
Bangladesh v Zimbabwe, 4th ODI Timing at Dhaka:
The third ODI between Bangladesh and Zimbabwe is a day game and will start at 9.00 am local time or 0300 hours GMT.
Venue:
The ZAC Stadium in Chittagong in Bangladesh has hosted nine games and has seen Bangladesh win their games against Zimbabwe and Scotland. The rest, against the stronger oppositions have all been lost. It is not a great track to score too many runs but that also means that the games are evenly balanced and give out low-scoring thrillers.
The Teams:
Zimbabwe have had the rough end of the batting in all three ODIs played and will be looking to try out something new in this game. The inclusion of Ryan Butterworth could make a little difference given that the opposition hasn’t seen him bat, but one gets the sense that the team is far too predictable in their approach. Sending in a few pinch-hitters could make things interesting if possible. It could also throw Razzaq off a little.
The bowling has done a decent job for the side with Prosper Utseya and Ray Price sharing the booty. Unfortunately, the others haven’t been able to contribute much with the ball.
For Bangladesh, they will not look to change anything in their line-up. Apart from the very obvious manner in which Razzaq has gone through the opposition like a hot knife through butter, it would have been heartening to watch Mashrafe Mortaza bowl the way he did in the previous game. The rhythm seemed to be coming back for him.
The batting looks to be in safe hands for now, with Shakib al Hasan scoring in almost every game and being supported by one or the other batsman. Tamim Iqbal has had a reputation to keep but so far, he has not been able to convert his starts to something bigger.
