ZIMBABWE senior men's cricket team will be looking to bounce back from a disappointing performance in the first of the five matchT20i series against Bangladesh when the two teams clash again at Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chattogram today
The Chevrons succumbed to an eight-wicket defeat in the series opener on Friday and will be looking to draw level in the second encounter of the series.
After losing the toss Zimbabwe were sent in to bat first and suffered a spectacular collapse which saw the team slump from 36 for 1 to 41 for 7 inside eight inside overs.
A 75-run eighth wicket stand between Clive Madande and Wellington Masakadza added respectability to the total as the visitors were bowled out for 124.
The fielding could not remedy the situation as a couple of dropped catches against a low total worked against Zimbabwe.
The hosts comfortably reached the target with 28 balls to spare and took a 1 – 0 lead in the series.
Interim coach, Stuart Matsikenyeri conceded his charges played badly.
"Obviously we haven't started the series the way we would have wanted to. We lost our way there in the first innings of the match. Like you would have seen yesterday (Friday) we lost our way a bit," Matsikenyeri told Standardsport yesterday.
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"Towards the end of the powerplay we lost too many wickets which broke our back and we couldn't find good momentum to post a good score. Having said that, there was a reasonable fight back from Clive and Wellington at the back end to give us something to bowl to.
"But, it's no secret that it was never going to be enough on what we thought were really reasonable conditions. We thought it was a good wicket with which we could have scored more runs but that wasn't to be. Obviously we didn't go as well as we would have liked in the field because we didn't convert a couple of opportunities that were created by Blessing and Richard and that didn't go well as well," he said.
The former Zimbabwe international is confident they can tilt the balance around beginning with this second T20i.
"So, all around it just wasn't a good start but we do know that we are a better side than what we showed yesterday (Friday). So, it's key for us to look forward to tomorrow (today) and come back strong and play a good challenge because with the side that we have here we know that we can put better performances together and claw our way back into the series," he added.
"We had a light session today and some recovery so we are good to go for tomorrow (today) so we just hope that we start better."
On Friday, Madande was the top scorer with 43 runs from 39 balls while Masakadza managed 34 from 38 balls as debutant Joylord Gumbie made the third best contribution with 17 from 14 balls.
There were three golden ducks for seniors Raza, Sea Williams and Ryan Burl while Craig Ervine was bowled out for a duck in two balls as the top order batter struggled to contain the bowling of Tasin Ahmed (3/14) and Mohammad Saifuddin (3/15).
Opener Tanzid Hasan struck an unbeaten 67 in 47 balls to steer the hosts to victory.
The second T20i kicks off at 2pm local time.
