Opener Liton Das hit 81 and Anamul Haque 73 to guide Bangladesh to 303-2 in the first ODI against Zimbabwe Friday at the Harare Sports Club. Tamim Iqbal and Liton added 119 runs in the opening stand. The Tigers captain, who scored 62 off 88 balls, fell to Sikandar Raza. Anamul, who was struggling to bring his form in the domestic arena to international cricket, finally hit a fifty. He made 73 off 63 balls with six fours and three sixes. Read: BCB yet to name a captain for Asia Cup After Liton retired hurt, Mushfiqur Rahim, who skipped the previous series against the West Indies for personal reasons, came to the wicket and scored 52 off 49 balls. Mahmudullah Riyad remained unbeaten on 20 off 12 balls. Bangladesh fielded three pacers: Taskin Ahmed, Shoriful Islam and Mustafizur Rahman. The Tigers won all of their last 19 ODIs against Zimbabwe. Also, they won six of their last seven ODI series at home and abroad. Ahead of the ODIs, Bangladesh lost the three-match T20I series against the hosts.

Bangladesh head coach Russell Domingo said right-handed batter Anamul Haque Bijoy needs to wait more before making a comeback to the ODI side. Anamul played one Test and three ODIs during Bangladesh’s ongoing tour of the West Indies but failed to impress. The right-handed batter scored more than 1100 runs in the last edition of the Dhaka Premier Division Cricket League, the most prestigious 50-over event, in Bangladesh which helped him to make a comeback to the national team after a long gap.  Read: Anamul returns to Bangladesh team after 8 years “It’s tricky (to not play Anamul),” Domingo said. “He has done really well. But we need to have a left-hander in the side against the West Indies.” After the second victory in the ODI series, Bangladesh captain Tamim Iqbal said that they are willing to test their bench strength in the last match, but the opinion of the head coach expressed the other idea. Bangladesh won the series with victories in the first two matches. They now got a great chance to clean sweep the hosts. Along with Anamul, Taijul Islam and Ebadot Hossain are the other players who are yet to feature in an ODI in this series. And the hope is really slim for them to get a chance in the final match which is set to take place Saturday at Providence Stadium, Guyana.   Although Bangladesh did well in the ODI series, they have lost all the Tests and T2oIs in this series ahead of the ODIs. 

Right-handed batter Anamul Haque Bijoy continued to shine with the bat in the Dhaka Premier Division Cricket League. In his first match of the Super League stage, Anamul hit 77 for Prime Bank Cricket Club against Abahani Limited and led his team to seal the match at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium. It was Anamul's sixth fifty in the league. He also has two centuries under his belt in the ongoing event. The right-handed batter already passed the 800-run mark. Abahani won the toss and opted to bowl first. Prime Bank posted 273 runs for nine wickets riding on the 77 of Anamul and 44, 43 of Mohammad Mithun and Yasir Ali respectively. Shahadat Hossain and Mahedi Hasan also did well with the bat scoring 38 and 34. For Abahani, Dhananjaya de Silva was the best bowler taking 3 wickets conceding 57 runs in 10 overs while Mohammad Saifuddin also bagged two wickets for them. In reply, Abahani tumbled for 131 for 10 wickets in 32.4 overs and lost the match by 142 runs. Captain Mosaddek Hossain scored 65 but the failure of the top five batters cost them the match. Only one of the top five batters of them was able to reach a double-digit score. Rakibul Hasan and Nasir Hossain scalped three wickets each for Prime Bank. READ: Bangladesh likely to tour Australia and England in the forthcoming ICC FTP fixtures In the match between Legends of Rupganj and Rupganj Tigers Cricket Club in BKSP, Sabbir Hossain of Legends of Rupganj hit his first century of the season and guided his team to a 55-run win. Along with Sabbir, Chirag Jani also did well with the bat scoring 95 not-out for Legends of Rupanj. In reply to Legends of Rupganj’s 325 for five, the Rupganj Tigers socred 270 and lost the match. For them, Saad Nasim of Pakistan hit 116 but his effort was not enough for them to avoid a defeat. In the other Super League match between Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club and Gazi Group Cricketers in BKSP, Sheikh Jamal won by 72 runs. Parvez Rasool won the player of the match award for his 77 runs and three-wicket haul for Sheikh Jamal. And in the only match of the Relegation League, Khelaghar Samaj Kalyan Samity beat City Club by 85 runs in Fatullah.