Australia 187-8; Bangladesh 195-5 | Bangladesh Win by Five Wickets
Tourists Slump to Series Defeat with One Game to Play
Australia have suffered their first-ever ODI series defeat against Bangladesh after losing by five wickets in the second match of their three-game series.
Following a disastrous start of 0-3 within the first two overs at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Dhaka on Tuesday, Australia managed to recover to 187-8 from 42 overs when rain interrupted play at Mirpur.
The match was delayed for 160 minutes before Bangladesh, set a revised target of 192 from 41 overs via the DLS method, comfortably reached the target with 36 balls remaining. The victory, which secured an unassailable 2-0 series lead, was sealed by captain Mehidy Hasan Miraz’s six off Riley Meredith.
Australia found themselves in trouble from the outset, making unwanted history by losing their first three wickets before scoring a single run in an ODI match.
Under pressure, Marnus Labuschagne (55 not out) and tail-ender Xavier Bartlett (career-best 52) helped the tourists avoid a complete collapse. After winning the toss and electing to bat, Australia lost top-order batsmen Matt Short, Cooper Connolly, and Matt Renshaw for ducks.
Short was bowled by Taskin Ahmed, who had troubled him in the first game, marking Short's third consecutive zero dating back to the recent Pakistan series.
Connolly and Renshaw both edged Mustafizur Rahman to wicketkeeper Litton Das in the second over.
Stand-in Australian captain Josh Inglis said: “Any time you lose three wickets that early, it’s tough to come back from. Marnus and ‘X’ [Bartlett] got us to total, but it wasn’t enough. Bangladeshi have outplayed us in this series, so congratulations to them.”
At 25-4, Alex Carey (13) was dismissed before Josh Inglis (34) and Cameron Green (25) both fell to Tanvir Islam’s spin bowling, leaving Australia struggling at 81-6.
Labuschagne, demoted to number seven in the batting order, ended a prolonged form drought by scoring his first half-century in his past 18 ODIs. He combined with the unlikely batting hero Bartlett for a 103-run seventh-wicket partnership, giving Australia a faint chance.
Taskin ended the partnership by bowling Bartlett and then took a hat-trick by dismissing Adam Zampa on the very next ball, shortly before rain halted play.
Bangladesh’s innings began poorly when Tanzid Hasan (0) spooned the second ball of the innings back to Xavier Bartlett for a catch.
Bartlett then dropped a difficult chance from Najmul Hossain Shanto three balls later and had a successful lbw appeal overturned on DRS in an eventful first over.
Soumya Sarkar (42) and Najmul (42) steadied the innings with an 86-run second-wicket partnership, before Towhid Hridoy (44 not out) and Mehidy Hasan Miraz (22 not out) guided Bangladesh to victory.
Bangladesh, who had not beaten Australia since 2005 before this series, have now defeated them twice within 48 hours.
The Tigers have won four consecutive bilateral ODI series, having also defeated New Zealand, Pakistan, and West Indies.
The third and final game of the series will be played in Dhaka on Sunday.
