Mohammad Naim and Soumya Sarkar scored half centuries as Bangladesh beat Zimbabwe by eight wickets to win the first match of their Twenty20 series at the Harare Sports Club on Thursday.

The pair featured in a 102-run opening wicket partnership to set Bangladesh on their way to a comfortable victory as they chased down a target of 153 for victory with seven balls to spare.

Naim finished on 63 not out while Sarkar got to 50 before being run out.

Zimbabwe, who won the toss, made a good start with Regis Chakabva transferring his ODI form to the T20 format and scoring 43 to guide Zimbabwe to 91-3 after 10 overs.

But they added only 61 more runs as wickets tumbled in the next nine overs and were bowled out with one over to spare. Mustafizur Rahman took 3-31.

The sides meet again in the three-game series on Friday and Sunday. Bangladesh beat Zimbabwe in their one-off test this month and wrapped up a 3-0 win in the one-day international series this week.