Australia’s tour of Bangladesh – Review – Part 7
With the Australian batsmen at 142 runs for the loss of three wickets at the end of the 19th over the Bangladeshi bowlers knew they had to, at the very least, take some quick wickets if they did not want to see the match slip out of their grasp.
Captain Michael Clarke and Michael Hussey combined for a solid 89 run partnership before the former found himself back on his way to the pavilion just three runs short of his half century.
It was a sensible, well constructed knock that Clarke will have to display on a consistent basis, as a solid performance from a team’s skipper can do wonders for the rest of the squad in terms of confidence and belief.
His replacement, Callum Ferguson did not stay for long as he lasted only six deliveries before he was caught by http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Alok-Kapali-c43787 with Mashrafe Mortaza claiming his second wicket of the match. His contribution of three runs to the scorecard was, to be honest,
insignificant and the Australian player’s disappointment was more than apparent as he failed to make a name for himself.
Mitchell Johnson seemed to have caught the Shane http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Watson-c96326 bug, as he demolished the Bangladeshi bowling attack on his way to a quick fire 41 runs. The four boundaries and two sixes Mitchell dispatched had helped him reach the score in just 24 deliveries.
Murtaza ensured that Johnson would be the third Australian to be dismissed within 10 runs of his half century as he tempted him into a wayward shot. The ball flew in the area http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Imrul-Kayes-c64265 was fielding and he made no mistake with the catch.
Meanwhile, Hussey was doing some punishing of his own as he made his half century and had a look in his eyes that indicated that there was much more to come.
Tim Paine’s stay at the crease was similar to that of Ferguson’s albeit slightly more prolonged. Paine added eight runs to the scorecard before Razzak had his third wicket of the match when his appeal for leg before wicket was met with a raised finger by
the umpire.
When Hussey departed after scoring eight runs in addition to his brilliant century the Australian’s knew they were in a comfortable position at 350 runs for the loss of 8 wickets. With the help of a 21 run blitz by John Hastings the Australian team managed
to add 11 runs in the closing 5 deliveries of the innings to take their total to 361 runs in the allotted 50 overs.
The Bangladeshi captain Shakib Al http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Hasan-c61990 used seven different bowlers in the first innings with none able to quell the Australian attack effectively in terms of restricting the run rate. The bowlers struggled against the likes of Shane Watson, Michael Hussey,
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Clarke-c51120.
Apart from http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Abdur-Razzak-c41688 who each took a three wicket haul, none of the other bowlers provided any real venom or cause for concern for the batsmen. Instead they seemed easy pickings for the Australian batsmen.
On the other hand, the strength in the depth of the Australian batting line-up shone through again as they almost seemed to pass on the baton to the next man in to continue the momentum. Three batsmen reached the 40 run mark, one made his half century and
another reached the 100 run mark.
In short the Australian batsmen had bullied the Bangladeshi bowlers to finish with a net run rate of 7.22 runs per over.
Continued in Australia’s tour of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Bangladesh-c747 – Review – Part 8
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