Close Zimbabwe (161 for 5 in 42.2 overs, Wishart 79*) beat Bangladesh (156 in 48.4 overs) by 5 wickets
Scorecard

Zimbabwe ended a run of 16 one-day defeats with a comfortable five-wicket win to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series. The hero was Craig Wishart, who followed scores of 94 and 114 in the recent Test series against Bangladesh, with a rollicking 79 to rescue Zimbabwe from the potentially embarrassing depths of 20 for 3.

Wishart added a matchwinning 105 for the fourth wicket with his captain Stuart Carlisle, after Grant Flower (bowled for pace in the third over by Mashrafee bin Murtoza for 0), Trevor Gripper (run out by Murtoza for 7), and Andy Flower (who edged a Murtoza outswinger to gully for 6) had all fallen in the first nine overs.

By the time Carlisle himself was run out for 46, Zimbabwe were 125 for 4, and well on their way to their first one-day win since April 11, when they beat Bangladesh at Bulawayo. Wishart finished the job in a blaze of strokes, helping take 17 off Sanwar Hossain's only over, and hurrying Zimbabwe to victory with 46 balls to spare.

Earlier, Bangladesh collapsed to 59 for 5, so an all-out score of 156 was something of a recovery. What there was of the innings centred on a sixth-wicket stand of 50 between Habibul Bashar (eventually yorked by Travis Friend for 44) and Khaled Mashud, who was run out by Friend for 40. Mashud was making his first appearance as captain in his 35th ODI after replacing Naimur Rahman, who was dropped.

The pick of the bowlers were Friend, who took 3 for 25, and the metronomic Gary Brent (3 for 29). Zimbabwe may have ended one bad run, but another remains: take away Bangladesh, and they haven't beaten a Test side in an ODI for 21 games.

The second match takes place on Sunday at Dhaka.

Teams
Bangladesh 1 Al Sahariar Rokon, 2 Mohammad Ashraful, 3 Tushar Imran, 4 Habibul Bashar, 5 Sanwar Hossain, 6 Khaled Mahmud, 7 Khaled Mashud (capt & wk), 8 Mohammad Rafique, 9 Mohammad Sharif, 10 Fahim Muntasir, 11 Mashrafe Mortaza.

Zimbabwe 1 Dion Ebrahim, 2 Trevor Gripper, 3 Stuart Carlisle (capt), 4 Grant Flower, 5 Andy Flower (wk), 6 Craig Wishart, 7 Doug Marillier, 8 Heath Streak, 9 Travis Friend, 10 Gary Brent, 11 Sean Ervine.

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