BRISBANE: Opener Najmul Hossain Shanto slammed his maiden fifty in the shortest format as Bangladesh posted a competitive 150 for 7 against Zimbabwe in a crucial T20 World Cup match, here on Sunday.
Shanto, who had a hamstring trouble in the initial stage and also survived a run-out scare, smashed seven fours and one maximum in his 55-ball 71-run knock.
The left-handed batter forged a 54-run stand with skipper Shakib Al Hasan (23 off 20) before adding another 36 runs with Afif Hossain (29 off 19).
Zimbabwe had an awful day on the field as they were guilty of miss-fielding, missing run-out chances and dropping catches.
Opting to bat, Bangladesh were down to 32 for 2 in the powerplay with pacer Blessing Muzarabani claiming the wickets of Soumya Sarkar (0) and Litton Das (14 off 12) in his opening spell.
Shanto and Shakib then rebuild the innings with a 54-run stand that came off 44 balls.
The duo punished the bowlers whenever they bowled short or too full and Zimbabwe fielders also looked sloppy as Bangladesh managed to find the boundaries easily.
Zimbabwe took a gamble by introducing left-arm spinner Sean Williams into the attack and it paid off as he got rid of Shakib, who top-edged a slog-sweep and was caught by a diving Muzarabani.
Shanto, however, continued to dominate as he completed his fifty in the 13th over with a single.
He sent Brad Evans for a leather hunt, clobbering him over long-on for the first six of the innings, before picking up two more fours to accumulate 17 runs in the 16th over.
It was Sikandar Raza, who got rid of Shanto with skipper Craig Ervine taking the catch.
While Richard Ngarava bowled a tight next over, Afif was dropped by Evans at deep mid-wicket in the 19th over off Sikandar Raza and the batter made good use of the chance, producing a big slog-sweep for a six as 12 runs came of the over.
In the last over, Bangladesh lost three wickets.
In total, Bangladesh scored 87 runs in the last 10 overs.
