Cricket news round-up – March 12: Bangladesh sweep Zimbabwe 6-0

Bangladesh thrashed Zimbabwe by 9 wickets to complete a 6-0 sweep across formats; 18 overseas female players have now signed up for The Hundred; the Mujib 100 T20 Cup Bangladesh has been postponed indefinitely; and Bengal hung on grimly in the Ranji Trophy final.

Bangladesh cruise to easy win, complete 6-0 rout

A 9-wicket win at Mirpur helped Bangladesh win the T20Is against Zimbabwe 2-0. They have earlier won the solitary Test and all 3 ODIs.

Asked to bat, Zimbabwe crawled to 119/7, largely due to Brendan Taylor, who batted through the innings for a 48-ball 59 not out. At one stage Zimbabwe were 96/3 with 26 balls in hand, but Al Amin-Hossain (4-0-22-2) and Mustafizur Rahman (4-0-25-2) pulled things back at the death.

The chase was set up by Liton Das (60* in 45) and Mohammad Naim (33 in 34), who added 77 in 64 balls. Soumya Sarkar (20* in 16) then helped finish the chase inside 16 overs.

More signings for women teams at The Hundred

As many as 18 female overseas cricketers will feature at The Hundred. The list includes eight members from the Australian side that won the T20 World Cup on Sunday. The franchises can now acquire at most six more cricketers between them.

The new signees include Beth Mooney (Welsh Fire), Nicola Carey (Northern Superchargers), Ashleigh Gardner (Birmingham Phoenix), Marizanne Kapp (Oval Invincibles), and Chloe Tryon (London Spirit).

Mujib 100 T20 Cup Bangladesh postponed

The 2 T20Is between Asia XI and World XI, scheduled to be played on March 21 and 22 at Mirpur to mark Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s birth centenary, have been postponed indefinitely as a coronavirus preventive measure.

The matches were supposed to have an ensemble cast, including superstars like Virat Kohli, Lasith Malinga, and Rashid Khan on one side and Chris Gayle, Nicholas Pooran, and Jonny Bairstow on the other.

Bengal battle on

Bengal finished Day 3 of the Ranji Trophy final on 134/3, still 291 behind Saurashtra’s 425. Sudip Chatterjee (47*) and Manoj Tiwary (35) added 89 to help them recover after they lost both openers on the team score of 35. Prerak Mankad, Chirag Jani, and Dharmendrasinh Jadeja picked up a wicket apiece.

Earlier, Saurashtra stretched their overnight score of 384/8 to 425 thanks to a 38-run last-wicket stand between Jadeja (33*) and Jaydev Unadkat (20). Akash Deep finished with 4/98 and Shahbaz Ahmed with 3/103.