Scorecard

Youngster Shahriar Nafees led Bangladesh's batting revival with a masterly century that helped his team post a competitive 231 for 6 against Zimbabwe in an inconsequential Champions Trophy qualifying match in Jaipur on Friday.

The 20-year-old gave Bangladesh, already out of contention for the tournament proper, a chance to salvage some pride pride by hitting an unbeaten 123 that was studded with shots all around the park.

The left-handed opener, who is said to have the right temperament for the leadership role, cracked 17 fours and a six for his second one-day international hundred.

The Dhaka-born player, who hit the headlines with a maiden Test century against Australia at Fatullah earlier this year, made the most of a reprieve from Elton Chigumbura when on zero in the fourth over of the innings.

Saqibul Hasan, 36, and skipper Habibul Bashar, 30, were the other notable contributors to the Bangladesh innings.

Nafees shared two vital partnerships, 84 runs off 122 balls for the third wicket with Hasan and 80 off 85 balls with Bashar for the fourth wicket.

Both the teams are out of the reckoning, having lost their two matches against Sri Lanka and the the West Indies who both have clinched the two available berths in the Super Eight stage of the biennial event.

Electing to bat, Bangladesh suffered an early setback, with Rajin Saleh and Aftab Ahmed falling with only 26 runs on the board.

Saleh, brought on in place of the out-of-form Mohammad Ashraful, failed to justify his inclusion as he fell leg before to Ed Rainsford for six.

But the big blow for the Tigers was the loss of Aftab, who had been in fine form the other day against Brian Lara's men.

The diminutive youngster succumbed to a stunning catch by wicketkeeper Brendan Taylor, who took a single-handed catch diving to his left.

But Nafees batted without restraint, feeding on the confidence given by Saqibul at the other end. The opening batsman struck two fours in an Ireland over before Aftab fell, and three more in the 12th and 13th over of the innings by Ireland and Rainsford respectively.

He then turned his attention to Gary Brent, whom he drove to the fence on both sides of the wicket off successive overs.

The dismissal of Saqibul, caught by Rainsford off 19-year old leg-spinner Tafadzwa Kamungozi, slowed down the run flow.

Obviously, the team did not want to suffer another batting collapse, and captain Bashar did well the job of preventing a collapse after a strong start like on Wednesday.

Nafees reached his century with a run down to third man off Rainsford from 143 balls.

Bashar then fell to Rainsford while trying to break the self-imposed shackles before Farhad Reza and Masharafe Mortaza departed in quick succession.

Earlier, Bangladesh made two changes to the team that lost to the West Indies in the previous match, Mohammad Ashraful and Syed Rasel making way for Rajin Saleh and Mehrab Hossain Jr., the last player making his ODI debut.

Zimbabwe had Gary Brent coming in place of Terry Duffin, who has flown back home after being unwell for the last week. He played neither of the two matches.