Picture Credit: Twitter
There are enormous reasons why the game of cricket receives the kind of love and passion from its fans as it does. At the crux of it, however, is the fact that the battle between the bat and the ball continues to produce moments of excellence on the field that makes the spectator go wow. Another such moment happened during the final ODI of the three-match series between Zimbabwe and Bangladesh. While the batter made a statement of the internet by clearing the fence comfortably, the bowler dismissed him in the very next ball.
All of this unfolded in the penultimate over of the Zimbabwe innings. Sensing a need to accelerate with just 12 balls remaining in the innings, Ryan Burl, who was set and batting on 53 from 41, moved way outside the off stump, accurately predicting the line and length of this Mohammad Saifuddin delivery before playing a fearless and daring whip shot that cleared the square boundary on the on-side with ease.
While Burl tried to go for the maximum again in the very next delivery after the ball was in the slot, he mistimed and it and Liton Das, stationed at long-on, took a good catch to dismiss Burl. This was Saifuddin's first wicket after going for 85 runs in 7.1 overs. He took two more wickets in the over to make up for a bad day prior to that and finished with 3/87.
Check out the video of Burl's shot here:
Talking about the match, Zimbabwe were eventually bowled out for 298 in 49.3 overs. Other than Burl's 59, opener Regis Chakabva's 84 and Sikandar Raza's 57 were the standout performances. For the Bangla Tigers, Mustafizur Rahman (3/57) and Mahmudullah (2/45) were impressive with the ball in hand other than Saifuddin's spell. Bangladesh's innings is currently underway.
Notably, the visitors have already clinched the three-match series by winning the first two matches comfortably. They had earlier beaten Zimbabwe in a one-off Test match by 220 runs. The teams will also go head to head in a T20I series post the conclusion of the ODIs. All the matches of this tour have been scheduled at the Harare Sports Club.