Afif Hossain's 26-ball 52 helps Bangladesh recover from 6/60 to beat Zimbabwe by 3 wickets

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Afif Hossain hit a 26-ball 52 as Bangladesh made a spectacular recovery to beat Zimbabwe by three wickets on Friday with two balls remaining in a winning start to the Twenty20 tri-series.

The match was delayed by more than 1 1/2 hours due to a wet outfield and reduced to 18 overs per team.

Zimbabwe was put into bat, posted a challenging 144-5 and looked headed for victory with Bangladesh 60-6 in the 10th over.

But 19-year old Afif Hossain, playing only his second match, counterattacked in style as Bangladesh reached 148-7 in 17.4 overs.

Afif and Mosaddek Hossain combined for 82 runs off 47 balls in their seventh-wicket partnership to take Bangladesh close to victory before Afif was dismissed by Neville Madziva (2-25) in the last over of the game.

Afif, who brought up his 50 off 24 balls, struck eight fours and one six.

Mosaddek was not out on 30 off 24, including two sixes.

Zimbabwe pacer Tendai Chatara took 2-32, including the wicket of opener Liton Das for 19. Fast bowler Kyle Jarvis (2-31) dealt a double blow, removing Soumya Sarkar (4) and Mushfiqur Rahim (0) before Chatara took the prized wicket of Shakib Al Hasan for 1.

And when Ryan Burl had Mahmudullah lbw for 14, Bangladesh was in real danger.

The situation worsened with the dismissal of Sabbir Rahman for 15, leaving the hosts 60-6.

Earlier, Burl hit a 32-ball 57 not out for Zimbabwe with five fours and four sixes, including smashing 30 runs off Shakib's last over — 6, 4, 4, 6, 4, 6 — to help the side post a challenging total. It was the highest number of runs conceded by Shakib in his T20 career and he finished with 4-0-49-0, also his worst bowling figures.

Tinotenda Mutombodzi was not out on 27 off 26 with a four and a six.

No bowler took more than one wicket for Bangladesh.