Bangladesh beat Zimbabwe despite losing top 3 batsmen for ducks

Elton Chigumbura

The Bangladesh cricket team found themselves in a rare club on the 3^rd day of the 1^st Test against Zimbabwe at Dhaka. Coming out to bat in their second innings after dismissing Zimbabwe for a mere 114 in their second innings, the hosts found themselves at 0 for the loss of 3 wickets inside the first 5 overs.

Bangladesh 0/3

Openers Tamim Iqbal and Shamsur Rahman, and number 3 Mominul Haque were sent back to the pavilion, courtesy a splendid new-ball burst from the Zimbabweans.

There have been other instances of teams losing wickets in clusters without having opened their accounts. However, this is the only the third instance of a team seeing its top three batsmen being dismissed for a duck in a Test innings.

The last instance was 62 years ago at Leeds when India lost Pankaj Roy, Datta Gaikwad and Madhav Mantri for nought to leave them 0/3 in their second innings with Fred Trueman and Alec Bedser doing the damage for the hosts.

The maiden instance was way back in 1888 when Australia lost not 3, but 4 of their top-order wickets at Manchester versus England without any contribution from the top four. Charles Bannerman, Percy McDonnell, Harry Trott and George Trott were all dismissed for ducks as the English bowlers wreaked havoc.

The interesting part of all the 3 occurrences is that each of them has happened in the second innings of a Test match.

The last time a team was reduced to 0/3 was in 2006 when Irfan Pathan picked up opener Salman Butt, number 3 Younis Khan and number 4 Mohammed Yousuf to secure a sensational hat-trick in Karachi. The hat-trick came in the first over of the Test match.

Bangladesh win close encounter

Despite the horrid start, Bangladesh went on to win the match by 3 wickets. Chasing a total of 101, skipper Mushfiqur Rahim’s unbeaten knock of 23* was crucial to the fortunes of the hosts.

Earlier in the day, left-arm spinner Taijul Islam blew away the Zimbabwe batting line-up, picking up 8 wickets for 39 runs, which is the best figures by a Bangladeshi bowler in a Test innings. He later came out to bat and hit the winning runs for the Tigers.

With the win, Rahim secured his second Test win as captain, making him the most successful Bangladesh captain in the longest format of the game. The teams now move to Khulna, where the second Test of the 3-match series will be held.