HARARE: Zimbabwe were 102 for one at lunch on the opening day of their one-off Test against Bangladesh at Harare Sports Club here on Thursday.

Tinotenda Mawoyo and Vusi Sibanda got the hosts off to a flying start on their return to Test cricket after a six year absence.

The only blip came in the last over of the session when Mawoyo, on his Test debut, fell to Rubel Hossain trying a cut and he was caught at deep point by Mahmududullah.

He scored 43 with five boundaries and until this mistake he was never in trouble against a modest attack.

Sibanda will continue after lunch on 50, his highest score in Tests.

Zimbabwe can be well pleased with this performance, especially as it was achieved on a greenish wicket and after being put in by Shakib al Hassan after he won the toss.

Neither opener made any mistakes before the dismissal of Mawoyo, except for a scare in the first few minutes when they escaped a narrow run out of Sibanda.

Although this was Mawoyo's first Test innings and only Sibanda's fourth they had the look of seasoned batsmen at this level.

Zimbabwe have a strong looking batting line-up to come and will be looking for a large opening total by the close of play. Bangladesh are desperate for breakthroughs in the next session, otherwise the match could appear to be slipping away from them.

In the meantime the Zimbabwe Cricket board of directors responded to criticism by Tatenda Taibu, the controversial batsman and wicket-keeper, who has complained about lack of pay.

He suggested little had changed after many such disputes in the past.

In a statement Zimcricket said he would not be disciplined, but they are opening a system of dialogue with the players and Taibu would be welcome to speak his mind.

The match is being attended by International Cricket Council president Haroon Lorgat who said he was happy to see that Zimbabwe had made "such a responsible start" to their Test cricket return.

Published by Unknown on 11:25. Filed under . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0