Bangladesh created history when they won the third T20I by 11 runs, taking an unassailable lead and sealing their first-ever series win over Australia.
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History was made on Friday when the Bangladesh cricket team beat Australia in a third consecutive T20I match to clinch the T20I series 3-0. It is the first time that Bangladesh have recorded a series triumph across formats against Australia. The players’ emotions at the end of the match were pure excitement and joy. For Australia, they have a lot of work to get done before the ICC T20 World Cup. It is also the first time that Bangladesh have won four consecutive T20I matches and two consecutive T20I series. The Aussies, however, set an unwanted record. They have recorded the lowest score ever in a T20I match while losing 4 or fewer wickets in the men’s game.
Bangladesh did not have a good start to the match in any way. The team lost both their openers very cheaply and quite early in the innings. Mohammad Naim was dismissed for 1 while Soumya Sarkar could only manage to get 2 runs on the board. It was the experienced duo of all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan and skipper Mahmadullah that somewhat saved the day. Shakib had a good showing with the bat as he made 26 runs off 17 deliveries while the Bangladesh skipper played a slow but steady knock of an impressive 52 off 53 deliveries.
Afif Hossain and wicketkeeper Nurul Hasan played useful cameos of 19 and 11 respectively as the Bangladesh score stood at 127-9 at the end of 20 overs. On paper, it seemed like nothing for an Australian team. Almost everyone predicted the Aussies to take the game with absolute ease.
The bowlers had done quite a good job for them. Nathan Ellis was the pick of the Australian bowlers as he picked three wickets for 34 runs in his four overs. Adam Zampa picked a couple of wickets for 24 runs in his four overs, while pacer Josh Hazlewood also picked two wickets in his four overs, giving away just 16 runs.
Australia did not have a particularly good start to their innings either. Skipper Matthew Wade was dismissed quite cheaply right at the beginning for just one run. Ben McDermott and Mitchell Marsh then steadied the ship for the Aussies, but it was not that simple. Both the batters got good runs, but the issue was the run rate. They just could not get going.
McDermott was completely out of form as he scored 35 runs off 41 deliveries. Marsh played a good knock of 51 runs off 47 deliveries. All-rounder Moises Henriques was then dismissed for just 2 runs. Wicket-keeper Alex Carey played a cameo of 20 runs off 15 balls but it was a little too late. He rained unbeaten at the end with Dan Christian who scored 7 runs off 10 balls. The Australian innings had ended at a score of 117-4.
The Bangladesh bowlers did a fantastic job of preventing the Aussies from hitting the big shots. They might not have gotten as many wickets but they were very effective in completely drying up the batting momentum. The runs were indeed coming but it was much too slow. Shoriful Islam picked two wickets in his four overs for 29 runs. Nasum Ahmed and Shakib Al Hasan picked one wicket each.
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