Harare: Right-arm opener Innocent Gaia’s first century, fifties from Brian Bennett, Craig Erwin and Wesley Mathewere helped Zimbabwe take a first-innings lead over Bangladesh.
The home side, who started the first innings at 136/1 with Bangladesh all out for 140, were bowled out for 410 thanks to a magnificent display from Kaiya.
The opener, who restarted Zimbabwe’s innings alongside veteran Brendan Taylor, dominated the Bangladesh bowlers, anchoring a 227-ball 140 with 17 fours to finish as the home side’s highest score.
He shared a 107-run partnership for the third wicket with Bennett, who contributed significantly to Zimbabwe’s total with a blistering 59 off 67 balls with the help of nine fours.
Following back-to-back dismissals, middle-order pair Erwin and Mathewere took charge of Zimbabwe’s batting as they put on 102 for the sixth wicket, culminating in the dismissal of the former.
While Taijul Islam swept through Zimbabwe’s batting tail, making an unbeaten 77 off 108 balls with 8 fours, Mathewere, on the other hand, stood his ground.
For Bangladesh, Islam took 7 wickets for 138 runs in his 40.2 overs and Khalid Ahmed also took 2 wickets.
Trailing by 270 runs, the visitors got off to a shaky start to their second innings as they lost left-arm opener Shadman Islam (nine) for 22 early on.
Following the early setback, Mominul Haq joined Mahmud Hasan Joy and the duo batted smartly to prevent Bangladesh from suffering another setback as they put together an unbeaten 18-run partnership to push the score to 40/1.
Huq and Joy will now resume Bangladesh’s second innings on day three, with the visitors still trailing Zimbabwe by 230 runs by nine wickets.