'There's a long way to go' – Mohammad Saifuddin

The 21-year-old made vital contributions in both the games, scoring an important fifty at Mirpur before clinching a three-wicket haul at Chittagong.

"I have worked on the mental aspects of bowling," said Saifuddin after the game on Wednesday, 24 October. "I have had elaborate discussions with senior players about how to approach bowling in international cricket. I have been quite expensive at this level previously. I will try to keep up what I did today. There's a long way to go.

"I am feeling good and cricket is a sport that tends to be that way: I will keep going in and out of the side, either due to injury or poor form. I am considered a bowling all-rounder so my primary skill is bowling. My batting comes afterwards but I still try to do well in both areas."

Saifuddin, who has an economy of 5.32 in ODI cricket and 11.05 in Twenty20 International cricket, was hit for five consecutive sixes by David Miller in South Africa last year. The all-rounder showed that he has learnt from the setback though, and put in a disciplined bowling display to concede just 22 runs in his final three overs.

"I will remember it (Miller's sixes) but I can't keep thinking about it when I am playing,'' he said. "There will be some slip-ups when you are trying to achieve success. My mother used to say that a baby may fall while taking his first steps but does that mean he will not walk? I will get hit but I will learn from it.

''I have been bowling in the death overs in the Under 15 and Under 17 levels while playing under Miraz (Mehidy Hasan). I struggled in my early days in international cricket but I always speak to Miraz and also Mustafizur (Rahman), who is an experienced bowler. I tried to execute whatever I have learnt so far.

"It was a batting track. Having conceded some runs in Mirpur during the same period of the innings, we wanted to keep them under 250. Mustafizur is a superb death bowler. I supported him by giving away (just) five to seven runs."

Zimbabwe, on the other hand, will rue the chances they missed with the bat in Chittagong. Put in to bat first, the visitors were in a strong position at 147/3 in 29.3 overs and looked primed to touch the 300-run mark.

However, they lost wickets at regular intervals and could add just 19 runs in the last five overs to finish at a below-par 246/7.

''Firstly [the problem] was with the bat. As you said, we got ourselves into a fantastic position but we just couldn't kick on at the death," said Hamilton Masakadza, the Zimbabwe skipper. "They bowled really well at us and we just couldn't execute our skills well enough today at the death.

"We spoke about setting ourselves up to go big. We did manage to set ourselves up, but we didn't kick on. It was that, and the fact that we didn't get early wickets. That opening partnership of theirs really took it away from us."