Rain stops Zimbabwe in their tracks

Bangladesh 88 for 5 (Hossain 31, Ervine 2-26) v Zimbabwe
Scorecard

After the first two days of the second Test were washed out, only 37.1 were able to be played on the third day as the torrential rain returned to the Queens Sports Club. Before play was called off mid-way through the afternoon session, the Zimbabwe bowlers had reduced Bangladesh to 88 for 5.

After a one-hour delay, the match finally started with the umpires content the outfield was dry enough - and after two days of no action at all, an hour seemed like nothing. Heath Streak won the toss and had no hesitation putting Bangladesh in to bat in the overcast and damp conditions.

Hannan Sarkar and Shahriar Hossain managed to survive the 14 overs before lunch with no major scares. They made a snail-paced start against accurate swing bowling from Streak and Douglas Hondo, who were on the mark straight away.

However, after the lunch break, Sarkar and Hossain opened up and looked to attack more. Sarkar stroked two successive boundaries off Blessing Mahwire, and Hossain tucked away three short balls to the fence. Sarkar continued to take a liking to Mahwire, driving him for two more fours, and the opening pair were forming a handy partnership.

But then Sean Ervine struck to dismiss Hossain, who slashed at a wide delivery, and got a faint edge through to Tatenda Taibu for 31 (64 for 1). Streak then removed new batsman Habibul Bashar, who edged a full ball to Travis Friend at first slip (73 for 2). They say bad things always come in threes, and that was the case for Bangladesh. In the following over, Sarkar played all round a straight delivery from Ervine and his leg stump was sent flying (73 for 3).

Rajin Saleh and Mohammad Ashraful did their best to prevent any more casualties for Bangladesh. However, Friend soon took his first wicket when Ashraful edged to Stuart Carlisle, who caught the ball at the third attempt (81 for 4). Saleh soon followed, slicing Hondo to Ervine at gully (87 for 5).

Zimbabwe were on a roll, and Bangladesh were on the slippery slope to nowhere, but the constant threat of rain came to their rescue.

Zimbabwe 1 Dion Ebrahim, 2 Trevor Gripper, 3 Stuart Carlisle 4 Grant Flower, 5 Sean Ervine, 6 Tatenda Taibu (wk), 7 Travis Friend, 8 Heath Streak (capt), 9 Raymond Price, 10 Douglas Hondo, 11 Blessing Mahwire.

Bangladesh 1 Hannan Sarker, 2 Shahriar Hossain, 3 Habibul Bashar (capt), 4 Rajin Saleh, 5 Mohammad Ashraful, 6 Mushfiqur Rahman, 7 Manjarul Islam Rana, 8 Khaled Mashud (wk), 9 Mohammad Rafique, 10 Tapash Baisya, 11 Alamgir Kabir.