Captain Tamim Iqbal led from the front with a scintillating century as Bangladesh completed a clean sweep of Zimbabwe, recording a facile five-wicket victory in the third and final game at the Harare Sports Club on Tuesday.
Zimbabwe posted a daunting 298 before being all out in 49.3 overs but Bangladesh rode ODI captain Tamim Iqbal’s 112 runs to knock off the target with 12 balls to spare, making 302-5.
Tamim struck eight fours and three sixes in his knock for which he played just 97 balls. Bangladesh won the first match by 155 runs, thanks to Liton Das’s 102 runs knock and second one by three-wicket when Shakib Al Hasan led the charge with a brilliant 96 not out.
And it was day of Tamim, who brought up his 14th century in ODI cricket, playing through his knee injury and extended Bangladesh’s winning streak against Zimbabwe to 19. It was also Bangladesh’s 50th victory against the Southern African nation.
In pursuit of the big chase, Bangladesh got a good start from Tamim Iqbal and Liton Das, who shared 88 runs in just 13.2 overs. It was only broken when Liton perished to sweep shot to be out on 32. Tamim by then pushed Madhevere square for a single to reach his half-century off 46 balls.
