Bangladesh secure maiden T20I win against Australia

Published : Tuesday, 3 August, 2021 at 9:36 PM Count : 877

Bangladesh secure maiden T20I win against Australia

Tigers have registered their first T20I win over the Aussies in the first game of the five-match T20 International series at Mirpur Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Dhaka. Mathew Wade’s Australia have lost to Bangladesh by 23 runs in opening T20 on Tuesday.

All the bowlers of Bangladesh team played their part to perfection and Nasum Ahmed was the pick of the lot with figures of 4 for 19.

Player of the Match Nasum Ahmed took as many as 4 wickets while Mustafizur Rahman and Shoriful Islam scalped a couple of wickets each. Aussies were bowled out for 108 in their chase of 132 runs. Mitchell Marsh top-scored for Australia with 45 runs while others failed.

Earlier, Australia won the toss and their bowlers did the rest of the job to restrict Bangladesh to 131/7 in their allotted 20 overs.

Nasum was complemented by two-wicket haul from left-arm pacers Mustafizur Rahman and Shoriful and one-wicket apiece from spinners Shakib Al Hasan and Mahedi Hasan.

Failing to deal with the spinners cost Australia the game.

Mitchell Marsh who struck three half-centuries in five-match series against West Indies, was the only Aussie batsman to come up with some resistance. He made run-a-ball-45 before being out as the sixth batsman.

BSS adds: The combination of Nasum, Shakib and Mahedi left Australia 11-3 in just third over with Mahedi breaking through in the first ball, dismissing Alex Carey for duck.

Nasum had Josh Philippe stumped for 9 and Shakib accounted Moises Henriques (1) before Marsh started his resistance.

With Shakib and Mahedi denying Australian batsmen to keep the runs flowing, Nasum ripped through the middle order in a gem of spin bowling.

Marsh kept the Aussies hope alive with calculated aggression. He grew with confidence after hitting Shakib a six.

But Nasum Ahmed claimed the prized wicket of Marsh in his last over when he went for a slog-sweep.

Marsh's dismissal effectively ended Australia's chance to win the game. Mustafizur and Shoriful then took care of Australia's lower order.

Earlier, Bangladesh's positive start was undermined by the batsmen's reckless shot against the world class bowling attack after they were asked to bat first.

Shakib Al Hasan top-scored with 36 off 33, hitting three fours and opener Naim Sheikh struck 29 ball-30, clobbering two fours and as many sixes. Afif Hossain was the other notable scorer with 16 ball-23 not out with three fours.

Naim Sheikh flicked Australia's speedster Mitchell Starc for a six over mid-wicket with a cracking shot in just second ball of the innings, giving the fans an occasion to exalt.

But Australia bowlers regrouped well to impose an extreme pressure, which was tough for Bangladeshi batsmen to swallow.

While Australia bowlers executed their plan well, Bangladesh batsmen failed to keep the scoreboard flowing as they played out 47 dot balls.

Starc's new ball partner Josh Hazlewood broke through with the wicket of Soumya Sarkar (2) and thereafter Naim Sheikh who looked set in the crease played a reckless shot to be bowled out by leg-spinner Adam Zampa.

Shakib and captain Mahmudullah played with caution but failed to rotate the scoreboard rapidly.

Hazlewood broke the partnership, dismissing Mahmudullah for run-a-ball-20 with a knuckle ball.

Hazelwood also took the crucial wicket of Shakib Al Hasan when hemappeared set to pace the scoreboard.

Starc then took the care of lower order batsmen but Afif Hossainmheld one end strongly to help the side go past 130.

Hazlewood was the most successful bowler for Australia with 3-24 while Starc claimed 2-33. Zampa and Andrew Tye took one wicket apiece.

Bangladesh pick 3 wickets of Australia giving 11 runs