Bangladesh's spinners chipped away at the Zimbabwe line-up with two wickets in the first session of the third day in Dhaka. Brian Chari brought up his second Test fifty before falling to a reviewed close catch off Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Taijul Islam removed nightwatchman Donald Tiripano as Zimbabwe went to lunch at 100 for 3, with Brendan Taylor and Sean Williams at the crease.
Bangladesh kept things very tight early on, Mustafizur Rahman and Khaled Ahmed starting the day with three maidens on the trot, before Tiripano squirted Mustafizur to the point boundary off the outside half of his bat. Tiripano attempted to dig himself in, but his defence failed him when Taijul lured him forward, outside his off stump, only for an edge to fly straight to Mehidy at slip.
Chari was similarly watchful at the start, and also endured a thorough working over by Khaled Ahmed, twice being struck on the grille with enough severity to knock the protective neck guard off the back of his helmet and raise a swollen bump on his left cheek. Despite repeated visits from the team physio, including one to ingest what seemed to be pain medication, Chari was unmoved.
If anything, the blows seemed to stir his attacking instincts, and from 20 off 93, he scored 32 off his next 18 balls to bring up his fifty from 111, shifting through the gears in an attempt to transfer the pressure back on to Bangladesh. Chari slapped Taijul over long-off in the first real display of any aggression from the batsmen in the morning, and swivel-pulled a short one from Khaled over square leg for his second six. The counter-attack continued against Taijul, and three lofted boundaries off the spinner took him to fifty in the 19th over of the day.
After settling in, Taylor played a few shots to the spinners too, relying mainly on his various sweep shots to score, and the third wicket stand had progressed to 56 when, just before the interval, a delivery from Mehidy popped up off Chari's pad and body to be caught by Mominul Haque at short leg.
Umpire Dharmasena turned the appeal down, but Mahmudullah called for the review, and replays showed a thin audio spike as the ball passed Chari's glove. That was enough to have the decision reversed, capping what Bangladesh should view as a successful session.
Source: ESPNcricinfo