Bangladesh vs Zimbabwe, 2020: 1st T20I – Bangladesh's big win, Chris Mpofu's embarrassing feats with the ball, A record opening stand and more stats

Bangladesh continued their dominance over Zimbabwe team who now suffered their 5th successive defeat on the current tour. The hosts took a 1-0 lead in the 2-match T20I series after registering a 48-run win on Monday. Liton Das (59 off 39) and Soumya Sarkar (62* off 32) scored runs at a quick pace to power Bangladesh reach 200/3. Zimbabwe, in reply, kept losing wickets from the very 2nd over. The middle and lower-order batsmen sent the ball over the fence a couple of times as Zimbabwe posted 152 before they were bowled out in 19 overs.

All the statistical highlights from Bangladesh’s 48-run victory over Zimbabwe during the first T20I:

Bangladesh’s record win:

48 – Bangladesh’s 48-run win in this match is their biggest T20I win in terms of runs against a full-member nation. Bangladesh has only three bigger T20I wins in terms of runs with the highest of them was by 71 runs against Ireland in the 2012 Belfast T20I when the Irish side was as an associate team. Bangladesh registered wins of 54 and 51 runs respectively against Oman and UAE in the first quarter of 2016.

A big total for Bangladesh:

200/3 – Only the 3rd time Bangladesh posted a 200+ total in T20I cricket. The 215/5 during a record chase against Sri Lanka in 2018 Nidahas Trophy and 211/4 against West Indies in the 2018 Dhaka T20I are the other two instances of Bangladesh crossing 200-run mark in Men’s T20Is. Bangladesh’s previous biggest total in the T20Is against Zimbabwe was 175/7 during the 2019 T20I Tri-Nation series game in Chattogram.

One of Bangladesh’s best efforts with the bat:

1 – For the first time, Bangladesh’s top three scored 40+ runs in the same T20I match. Overall, Bangladesh’s innings was only the 10th instance in Men’s cricket where the top three scored 40+ in an inning.

12 – The 12 sixes hit by Bangladesh players in this match are the joint-most by them in a T20I game. They struck 12 sixes during the 2018 Nidahas Trophy match against Sri Lanka as well. In fact, Bangladesh hit more than 12 sixes in an International match only once – 14 sixes during the 3rd match of the last week’s ODI series.

A record opening stand for Bangladesh:

92 – The partnership of 92 between Tamim Iqbal and Liton Das is now the highest opening partnership in the T20I format for Bangladesh. The duo broke the record set by themselves with a 74-run stand in the 2018 Nidahas Trophy game against Sri Lanka.

Another expensive spell by Mpofu:

4 – Chris Mpofu is now the first player to concede 50+ runs in four T20I matches. These are the most instances of a bowler conceding 50+ runs in a T20I game surpassing Barry McCarthy (3) and Rubel Hossain (3).

58 – The 58 runs conceded by Chris Mpofu in this game are the 3rd most behind the 59 runs conceded by Mpofu himself against South Africa and Pakistan respectively in the 2010 Kimberley T20I and 2011 Harare T20I. The other instance of him conceded 50+ runs in a T20I was during the 2018 home T20I Tri-series against Australia where he gave away 53 runs.

Mushfiqur’s milestones:

4001 – Mushfiqur Rahim completed 4000 runs in theTwenty20 format with the 2nd six he hit during this match. He is only the 3rd player from Bangladesh after Tamim Iqbal and Shakib Al Hasan with 4000 T20 runs.

6012 – The first of the two sixes hit by Mushfiqur Rahim in this game took his aggregate in International cricket on the Bangladesh soil past 6000 runs. He is only the 2nd player after Tamim Iqbal with more than 6000 International runs in Bangladesh.