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Percival Sizara in CHITTAGONG, Bangladesh
BATTLE lines are drawn at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium as familiar foes Bangladesh and Zimbabwe take to the field for the second One Day International cricket match today in what will be a potentially explosive chase and defence of the series.

Bangladesh lead the series 1-0 after picking up a 28-run victory in the opener in Dhaka – a see-saw game that built up a magnificent momentum and atmosphere for today’s game and possibly the final and third ODI this Friday.

As the Bangladeshi Tigers go for the kill, the Zimbabwe Chevrons will be all out to save the series especially having shown flashes of brilliance sufficient to steal the show on any given day.

“Obviously I expect the guys to come back hard tomorrow (today) and put on a good show and put in a good performance,” Zimbabwe captain Hamilton Masakadza told The Herald.

“I thought we did a lot of things in the first game but we just didn’t finish it off so hopefully the guys can start well again tomorrow (today) and then finish it off this time.”

The ball is now in Zimbabwe’s court to prove their mettle, take the challenge to Bangladesh and get off the mark.

And there could never be a better time, than today, for Zimbabwe to step it up and silence the purring Tigers.

The Chevrons do harbour the intentions and ambitions of even getting away with the series honours. It’s a realistic and achievable goal that will only come down to how Masakadza’s charges apply themselves in today’s encounter.

This is a must win game for Zimbabwe to stay alive in the series and could as well turn out to be a make or break situation for both sides.

“We definitely have to try and win the series but first step is to get it back first tomorrow (today), get to level first then we can go from there.”

Masakadza is convinced with the performance that came through in Dhaka where bowlers took crucial wickets and stuck it out for about 35 overs while seven batters had good starts including the lower order that almost stole the game away in chasing 271.

With all this, Masakadza has backed his Chevrons to come good and add some killer instinct once in match changing and winning situations.

“I thought the guys have worked really hard like I said before. They have started quite well so I am expecting a little bit more tomorrow (today) and just a little bit more to get over the line,” he said.

Zimbabwe are without a win since March when they beat Ireland by 107 runs during the 2018 ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier in Harare.

Since then the Chevrons have lost 11 ODIs to the Windies, UAE both during the Qualifier, Pakistan (5-0), South Africa (3-0) and now Bangladesh in the series opener.