Bangladesh v Zimbabwe 3rd ODI, Mirpur - Preview

Dhaka: The series decider has implications for both teams with the visitors having far more to gain out of a win.

A victory for Zimbabwe will give them their first ODI series win since July 2006, and augur well for their future as an international team after an encouraging performance against Sri Lanka in the last three ODIs at home.

Much will depend on the batting. Zimbabwe's loss in the second ODI in Mirpur was once again a consequence of the failure of their batting line-up.

Hamilton Masakadza's blazing 77 against Sri Lanka in Harare almost caused an upset, but he's since failed to provide his team the explosive starts he is capable of. Forty -five runs in his last five innings provide a distorted indication of his ability, and with his team as desperate for a good start as the opposition, Masakadza needs to bat more responsibly.

Bangladesh, too, have had batting woes up the order: Ashraful replaced Mushfiqur Rahim at No.3 after the wicketkeeper's miserable run in the tri-series, but scored 4 and 5 in the last two ODIs.

Tamim Iqbal has managed just 74 runs in his last five games, but made a fluent 21 off 27 balls in the second ODI. He first came to the limelight with his aggressive show against India in the 2007 World Cup, and has notched up seven more half-centuries and a hundred since then, but the upcoming decider is just the stage he needs to break the poor run of scores he's had in the recent past.

Shakib Al Hasan has confirmed his consistently impressive performances by heading the ICC's ODI allrounder rankings, the first time any Bangladesh has topped any ICC rankings. His performances in the home tri-series involving Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe, took him to 380 rating points, helping him surge past last week's top two, New Zealand's Jacob Oram (368 points) and England's Andrew Flintoff (366).

He is the second Bangladeshi cricketer to break into any top 10 list, after left-arm spinner Abdur Razzak, who reached the eighth spot in the ODI bowling rankings in November 2007. Shakib, currently ranked number 12 in the ODI bowling charts, is tenth on the list of Test allrounders as well, making him the first from Bangladesh to enter the top 10 in any Test category.