Afif Hossain, unbeaten at 85, and Anamul Haque Bijoy, hitting his second fifty in the series, propelled Bangladesh to 256 for nine in the third and final ODI against Zimbabwe on Wednesday at the Harare Sports Club. 

Zimbabwe won the first two matches of the series, and they are on the verge of registering a clean sweep over Bangladesh. 

Bangladesh suffered their last clean sweep over Zimbabwe back in 2001. 

The Tigers need to defend this total to avoid a whitewash against the hosts. 

For the third time in the series, Bangladesh lost the toss and were inserted to bat first.

Like the first two matches, Bangladesh managed a brisk start as Tamim Iqbal and Anamul Haque added 41 runs in 8.3 overs. Tamim going well until being trapped in a run-out for 19 off 30 balls. 

After Tamim’s departure, Bangladesh suffered a mini-collapse with out-form batter Najmul Hossain Shanto and Mushfiqur Rahim fell quickly within the 10 overs of the innings. Both suffered a duck each. 

Read: Bangladesh bat first in 3rd ODI vs Zimbabwe

In the fourth-wicket stand, Anamul and Mahmudullah Riyad added 77 runs. But the unusually slow batting from Mahmudullah put immense pressure on Bangladesh. Mahmudullah eventually fell for 39 off 69 balls.

Afif was firm at the other end of the wicket. But he did not get enough company from Mehidy Hasan Miraz who batted for 24 balls to score 14 runs. 

Afif remained unbeaten for 85 off 81 balls with six fours and two sixes. 

For Zimbabwe, Brad Evans and Luke Jongwe scalped two wickets each. 

Bangladesh have three pacers in their arsenal along with Taijul Islam and Mehidy as the spinners to defend a total of 256. In the last two matches of this series, Bangladesh failed to defend 303 and 290.