Zimbabwe's stand-in captain Richard Ngarava headed into the one-off Test match against Bangladesh "thinking about making history" and walked away with with a "quite special" win - by an innings and 85 runs, their biggest in the format.
Zimbabwe bowled out Bangladesh for 140 in the first innings before posting 410, thanks to Innocent Kaia's 140. In the second innings, they bowled the visitors out for 185 with Ngarava and right-arm quick Blessing Muzarabani sharing seven wickets between them. This was the first time Zimbabwe registered successive innings wins.
"I think we have got a nice pack of bowlers, champion bowlers," Ngarava, who stood in as captain in Sikandar Raza's stead, said. "The results can always show themselves. The hard work that the boys have put in got us to where we are now. To be honest, as I walked into this Test match, there's one thing I was thinking about, which is making history. Zimbabwe, from before, had never won back-to-back Test series or any other series, so it's quite special to be winning back-to-back series."
Zimbabwe's seamers picked up all 20 wickets to fall in the Test match. Newman Nyamhuri, the 20-year-old left-arm quick picked up four wickets in the first innings while Ngarava, Muzarabani and Brad Evans took two each. In the second dig, Muzarabani returned figures of 4 for 65 while Ngarava took three.
"In every sport you play as a unit and everyone contributed there and I really feel like that's what got us to where we are," Ngarava said. "Not forgetting the hard work the boys have put in the past two months. It is quite important to develop these habits. We work together as a team and we definitely get to pick who's on their peak or who's having a good day on the park. That one guy is going to take the team forward, but everyone else gets to support in there and hopefully it continues for a long time."
Muzarabani struck twice in two overs on the third morning to dismiss Mahmudul Hasan Joy and Mominul Haque. He also returned to get Mushfiqur Rahim and Towhid Hridoy to quell Bangladesh's chances of making Zimbabwe bat again. While he did not get a chance to pick up a five-for, he took the final catch of the game. Ngarava complimented the senior fast bowler but reserved special praise for Nyamhuri, who had Mahmudul, Mominul (both in the first innings) and Najmul Hossain Shanto (second innings) among his six wickets in the Test match.
"I quite like Newman in the sense that he's quite open to learning new things," Ngarava said. "He's quite young and I feel like it's a privilege to have me and Bless [Muzarabani] in there, guys who can just actually share experience and I'm really proud of him and how quickly he's learning.
"I am not going to say much about Blessing. He is a champion bowler and we expect him to keep going."
Zimbabwe have now won two Tests in a row. Their previous win was in October 2025, when they defeated Afghanistan by an innings and 73 runs, their then biggest Test win. Until then, they had won only two out of 18 Test matches since the start of 2021.
"There's always ups and downs in life and it's part of it," Ngarava said. "You always learn from bad experiences and good experiences as well.
"It was quite important for us to go through that period and we got to a point where we mastered how we need to go about things and how we need to play our cricket. Of course, imparting a positive mindset in each and every player who comes into the dressing room. These things happen. At the end of the day we back the work we did before."
Ngarava said the successive Test wins in Harare have given Zimbabwe the confidence of utilising the home advantage against touring sides.
"We've got an idea of what conditions we have. We've got an advantage of the home soil. Whichever team comes here, we know the conditions better. We're in winter right now. We definitely knew we just needed to walk out there and bowl as many good balls as we can.
"Of course, youngsters out there are looking and they're looking up to us. It's part of our job to actually deliver and make them get off this field with a smile. It's quite important that as the youngsters are watching from out there, they also get to learn one or two things."