Zimbabwe produced some mind-boggling moments against Bangladesh.© X (Twitter)
It was a horror day on the field for Zimbabwe as they missed a golden opportunity to beat Bangladesh in the fourth T20I of the five-match series on Friday. Bangladesh's lower-order batsman Mustafizur Rahman escaped being run out twice on the same ball due to an error by Jonathan Campbell at the non-striker's end. The incident occurred on the second ball of the 20th over of Bangladesh's innings when Tanvir Islam and Mustafizur got entangled with each other. However, Zimbabwe failed to take advantage not once but twice.
The visitors produced some surprising moments of their own as Mustafizur survived twice. First, Blessing Muzarabani missed a direct hit at the striker's end. And last but not least, Campbell fumbled after a throw in at the striker's end as he headed the ball wide of the target from close range.
Coming back into the match, Shakib Al Hasan claimed 4-35 which helped Bangladesh recover from a batting collapse and beat Zimbabwe by five runs.
Mustafizur Rahman took 3-19, as the home team bowled out Zimbabwe for 138 in 19.4 overs.
In a modest reply of 143, Zimbabwe lost opener Brian Bennett for a duck in the very first over and were soon reduced to 57-4.
But they remained in contention after a middle-order rally, which saw Jonathan Campbell and Ryan Burl put on a 35-run partnership.
Mustafizur forced Burl to be caught by Soumya Sarkar after scoring 19 runs and Shakib took the wicket of Campbell for 31 runs to put Bangladesh on top.
Wellington Masakadza scored 19 runs from eight balls to take Zimbabwe close, but the strike ended in the final over when Zimbabwe needed 14 runs.
Shakib, who was playing his first T20 match in almost a year, wrapped up Zimbabwe's innings by dismissing Blessing Muzarabani and Richard Ngarwa in the final over.
Zimbabwe, who elected to bat first after winning the toss, gave a great start to Bangladesh when openers Tanzeed Hasan Tamim and Soumya made a partnership of 101 runs for the first wicket.
Luke Jongwe broke the opening partnership by dismissing Tanzid for 52 runs in 37 balls and then Soumya's wicket fell for 41 runs in the same over.
The host team lost its remaining eight wickets for just 35 runs and were out for the first time in the series.
The hosts lead the series 4-0 with the final game on Sunday.
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