Zimbabwe vs Bangladesh

You might ask whether it deserves to be called a test match, but Bangladesh and Zimbabwe are currently battling out a bit of a classic in Chittagong. With one day remaining, Bangladesh are on top with Zimbabwe are 46/3 in pursuit of 381.

The Zimbabwe team is full of new faces, but of those a couple are making a good impression. Elton Chigumbura scored 71 in Zimbabwe's second innings and took 5 for 54 as Bangladesh tried to set up a target. Chigumbura is only 18 and made his first-class debut as a 15 year old before destroying Australia in the under-19 World Cup final. He is definitely a player to watch for the future. Apart from Chigumbura and the increasingly impressive Tatenda Taibu, the Zimbabwe batting has been a little weak, but another youngster, Christopher Mpofu took four wickets in the first innings and another in the second to show promise with the new ball.

Bangladesh performed badly against New Zealand late last year, but you shouldn't judge them on just that tour. Their captain, Habibul Bashar missed most of that series and admitted to Wisden that he was very disappointed in the side's performance after they had pushed Pakistan and the West Indies hard. They are a side developing a solid core of players and some of those individuals are starting to shine. Bashar gives the batting line-up a bit of steel and the very talented Mohammed Ashraful is starting to flourish in the middle order while Nafis Iqbal is a young player with talent and the sort of never-say-die attitude the side probably needs. Tapash Baisya and Mashrafe Mortaza might not inspire fear in too many batting line-ups at this stage, but Mortaza is forging quite a decent record and Mohammad Rafique is up there with Daniel Vettori in the left-arm spinning stakes.

A victory will give the Bangladesh side a huge boost (and will sadly ensure New Zealand retains the record for most games played before achieving a first test win) and could lead to even better things over the next year. Zimbabwe on the other hand are a side in dire need of both development and political stability. The Bangladesh tour is not going to help with the latter, but it is certainly an opportunity for the former.