Australia v Bangladesh, 2nd ODI – Match Recap
The Australian tour of Bangladesh has three One Day Internationals scheduled, after the first going in favor of Australia, the teams clashed for a second time on 11th April at Shere Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur.
Shakib Al Hasan, the Bengali skipper, decided to bat first after winning the toss. Shakib brought Rubel Hossain in place of Mashrafe Mortaza, while the Aussies axed Cameron White in favor of Callum Ferguson.
Tamim Iqbal and Imrul Kayes, the regular Bengali openers took the crease to face Bret Lee with the new ball.
After the openers had fended Lee, Mitchell Johnson took the other end, after facing two dot balls; Tamim punished Mitchell Johnson for his wide length over the off-side with a four.
Not expecting a similar delivery again, Tamim got a thick edge off another ordinary delivery with lots of width, Shane Watson, standing at first slip, did not give him another chance.
Tamim went at 5 runs as Shahriar Nafees stepped in. Bret Lee troubled Imrul much in the 3rd over, Imrul could not handle the veteran pacer and the over ended as a maiden.
Lee continued to trouble the Bengalis while Johnson’s line was wayward, the 5th over saw Johnson replaced by Hastings and Bangladesh were 17 for one down at 3.40 runs per over.
With Lee and Hastings building pressure, the Bengalis seemed more focused on not getting out rather than trying to win. End of the 10th over saw Bangladesh at 25 runs, a continuously decreasing run-rate at 2.50 and the two batsmen struggling to save their wickets.
The pressure soon got to the batsmen, Imrul played a rash shot; an attempted pull over the off-stump, the ball got a top-edge and flew high, coming to rest in Watson’s safe hands.
Raqibul Hasan, the new batsman in, failed to provide the stability he should have, Hastings’ clips the off stump to send Raqibul back to the pavilion on a duck.
Shahriar and Shakib kept rotating the strike and hitting an odd four whenever the chance came, the end of the 20th over had Bangladesh on 62 with 3 wickets down and a run-rate of 3.10.
The 21st over saw the skipper walk back, Smith bowled Shakib out, putting him out of his misery. Mushfiqur Rahim was the new batsman in; Shahriar Nafees was going strong, reaching his fifty in the 26th over with Bangladesh on a total of 83 for 4.
Nafees laid arms shortly after his fifty as he went out in the 27th over after scoring 56 runs off 73 balls.
Mahmudullah and Mushfiqur took the Bengali innings ahead quite nicely, hitting a few fours and rotating the strike, they pulled Bangladesh to 167 for 5 by the end of the 43rd over.
The 44th over had Watson dismiss Mahmudullah, plumb before the stumps. Suhrawadi Shuvo stepped in and the 46th over saw Watson punished for 14 runs by both Shuvo and Mushfiqur.
After Shuvo’s demise in the 48th over, Mushfiqur gave Bangladesh a terrific end after he hit a bevy of boundaries, taking the Bangladesh total to 229/7 at the inning’s end.
The Australian innings began with Shane Watson and Brad Haddin on the crease. Watson thrashed the Bangladesh bowling attack from the word go.
With the first over going for 14 runs, Australia was geared to make short work of the unimpressive target.
Watson continued to thrash Shakib and Abdur Razzak, sending the ball over the rope many a times.
The Bengali skipper got his first break in the form of Haddin’s wicket, Haddin got caught at midwicket and Ricky Ponting stepped in after him.
Watson continued the destruction as Ponting rotated the strike, at the end of the 15th over, Australia were 107 for one down, a run-rate of 7.13.
The 20th over saw Bangladesh’s only chance going down, Watson lofted a delivery by Shafiul Islam, Razzak ran back to take the catch but couldn’t hold it, the ball cleared the rope with a bounce, four more runs.
The 21st over again saw Watson getting dropped by the Bengalis, the ball went high as Watson mistimed a sweep but Raqibul Hasan could not hold it as he ran in.
Watson did not take heed from the warnings, he went ahead to thrash Shuvo in the 22nd over, hitting four consecutive sixes, Watson added insult to injury.
Watson then thrashed Abdur Razzak in the 25th over, hitting 3 sixes and a four, Watson reached a massive total of 174.
Watson ended the match in the 26th over, his total reaching 185 from 96 balls; he had struck 15 fours and 15 sixes in his innings and broke the record held by Herschelle Gibbs for the highest score in boundaries.
Watson obviously became the Man of the Match and his score became the highest by any Australian batsman in One Day International Cricket.
Australia won the match very comfortably with 9 wickets and 144 balls to spare; it was a humiliating defeat for the Bengalis who evidently have a long road ahead in terms of improvement.
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