Curran and Ngarava seal Zimbabwe's stunning series win.
A proper ding-dong battle with its own soundtrack provided by the amazing fans at Castle Corner lit up the Harare night as Zimbabwe edged Bangladesh out, defending a total of 247 and wrapping up the ODI series 2-0 with a game to play. Ben Curran produced only the seventh instance of a Zimbabwean batting through the entire 50 overs but his 111 not out only became match-winning after a never-say-die bowling effort from his team-mates. At 169 for 3, they were being batted out. At 176 for 5, they were back in it. At 211 for 6, they were tested in a way they weren't quite ready for. At 222 for 8, with the sky above them drenched in sunset colours, they were favourites.
When the captain Richard Ngarava, intimately involved in orchestrating the Bangladesh collapse - 7 for 65 - had Mehidy Hasan Miraz caught at deep square leg to signal the end of the game, the grass banks erupted. The songs became garbled. Joy rippled right through the whole place
A pitch that had eased from its most menacing state - the first ODI was marked by a wicket once every 13 runs or so - still generated compelling cricket. Curran was out there at 9.30am when it was fresh and offered sideways movement. Rishad Hossain was out there at 5.20pm when it had dried out and the resulting slowness interfered with shot-making. He wasn't exactly worried about that as much as he was about trying to exploit the fading light and bring DLS into play. He asked for a change of gloves and was denied. He went down in between overs needing urgent care on his hamstring. It all came to nothing when he was bounced out.
Zimbabwe celebrated Rishad's exit like justice had been done. Bangladesh, meanwhile, just caught nerves. With 17 to get off 17, Mehidy went after Iknow Chabi for not calling a wide. "Ump! Ump! Ump!" he yelled. "What happened there, ump?!" The simple answer was he had shuffled across his crease which created space for the ball to go through, just a shade past leg stump. The new ODI rules allow for leniency and Zimbabwe would argue they deserved it. Two of their appeals for caught behind were turned down and with no DRS in this series they had no hope of recourse. Still their shoulders didn't slump. They just took down Tanzid Hasan and Rishad twice (according to their estimate at least).
Bounce was a friend in Harare. When the movement faded away, when the runs started leaking, a fast bowler willing to bend his back always found a little extra. Ngarava harnessed that to telling effect late in the piece. His third spell read 3-0-26-2. Nurul Hasan, who had batted capably to score 38 off 41 under pressure was suddenly gone, along with Mosaddek Hossain for 7 off 9. His final spell was a deeply satisfying one ball, one match and series winning wicket.
