Australia Cricket Team
The wicket was as poor as anything as it had extra down and serious low bounce. Australia after a successful chase decides to choose bowling after winning the toss. Bangladesh had a good start as they put up 40 in the first 4. On a sluggish wicket, it looked like Bangladesh will post well in excess of 150 for the first time in the series. One wicket though changed the entire complexion of the game as new batsmen came and started struggling.
Shakib’s inning was full of struggle and due to which Naim fell prey as in process of scoring runs quickly, he perished. Shakib too didn’t last long as his innings of struggle were cut short by Zampa on 11. Mahmudullah and Soumya Sarkar had a bit of a partnership before Agar took a nice catch of his own bowling to get rid of dangerous-looking Mahmudullah. Dan Christian who was economical till then got his name into the wickets column as he took as he got the wicket of Naim and Soumya Sarkar. Bangladesh was still on course of getting something in the range of 130 but some brilliant death over bowling by Nathan Ellis and Dan Christian made sure that Bangladesh doesn’t get much far ahead of the game. Finally, Bangladesh managed just 122 on the board out of which 18 were extras.
Australia looked firm favorite to chase this target down but Bangladesh spinners tightened the screws right from the start as last match hero Dan Christian was removed in the second over. Mitchell Marsh who played some handy knocks throughout the series had a real poor outing in the last game of the series as he managed just 4 runs in the 9 balls that he faced. Matthew Wade smacked 2 sixes and kept Australia in the chase.
Ben McDermott too hit one out of the park and just when it looked like that Australia have recovered from the initial blows, Shakib had the last laugh as first he got the better of Wade and then took 3 more to be chosen the Man of the Match award. Australia lost their third wicket for 38 and after that, the entire team fell like rank pins as they were bowled out in 13.4 overs at the score of 62. Shakib bowled a magical spell of 4-9 in 3.4 overs.
Australia in the process registered their lowest ever total in a T20I. Australia was outplayed by the Windies first and then the Bangladeshi Tigers. If these are Australia’s preparations for the upcoming T20 WC then they don’t stand a chance to go beyond the group stage. Their batsmen have failed to apply themselves in spinning conditions and UAE will have similar conditions as the pitches will be used during the 2nd leg of the IPL. Australia was without their main players but apart from Mitch Marsh and Ashton Agar, there are no positives that they can take back from the 2 T20I series that they played.