Bangladesh seamer Tapash Baisya made an immediate impact

Bangladesh picked up three wickets in the final session to leave the first Test against Zimbabwe intriguingly poised after the opening day.

Zimbabwe were 175-4 at close of play in Harare with Sean Ervine 25 not out and Tatenda Taibu on 18.

They lost three wickets for 26 runs in the final session after Dion Ebrahim (65) and Stuart Carlisle (58) had shared a stand of 107.

They came together after Trevor Gripper was out for a first ball duck.

Zimbabwe went into the game with a side showing five changes from that which lost by 128 runs to West Indies in Bulawayo last November.

Ebrahim and Grant Flower replaced injured batsmen Craig Wishart and Mark Vermeulen, and there were also recalls for Ervine, Doug Hondo and Gavin Ewing.

The tourists, who are looking for their first win after 25 defeats in 26 previous defeats, gave a debut to spinner Manjurul Islam Rana.

His seam bowling namesake Manjural Islam opened up with a tidy maiden for Bangladesh after the entire morning's play had been lost due to overnight rain.

Ebrahim's half century was his ninth in Test cricket

Tapash Baisya's introduction from the other end was far more dramatic as Gripper paid an immediate penalty for a loose stroke when he was caught at slip be new Bangladesh captain Habibul Bashar.

Carlisle hit one six and five fours as he brought up a 96-ball half century after coming perilously close to being run out by Baisya early in his innings.

He and Ebrahim were in no hurry as they rebuilt the innings, but they were separated in the first over after tea when Carlisle played too soon at a ball from Baisya and gave a return catch.

Ebrahim's three hour 20 minute vigil came to an end when he was lured forward by spinner Mohammad Rafique and stumped by Khaled Mashud.

And Rafique struck again in his next over when Flower mis-timed an attempted pull and was caught by Hannan Sarkar, having made only five.

Rafique ended the day with impressive figures of 2-41 from 22 overs, while Baisya took 2-47.

Zimbabwe: Heath Streak (captain), Andy Blignaut, Stuart Carlisle, Dion Ebrahim, Sean Ervine, Gavin Ewing, Grant Flower, Douglas Hondo, Raymond Price, Tatenda Taibu.

Bangladesh: Habibul Bashar (captain), Mohammad Ashraful, Tapash Baisya, Shahriar Hossain, Manjural Islam, Khaled Mashud, Mohammad Rafique, Mushfiqur Rahman, Rajin Saleh, Hannan Sarkar, Manjural Islam Rana.