What time is it in New Zealand? It’s midnight there! Surely Kane Williamson is asleep, or waking up at night to watch the last T20i match between Bangladesh and Australia? It would not be bad to know that. What are the thoughts of the New Zealand cricketer right now? The Kiwis will visit Bangladesh in a couple of weeks. Seeing such a devastating form of the opposing team, they must not have a good night’s sleep.
The wickets of the subcontinent are naturally helpful. Before coming to toa Bangladesh, he came to Australia with that thought in mind. They also had three specialized spinners in the squad. But Matthew Wade’s team could not have imagined that he would have to take so many tests in the red-green camp. Or the idea that it is not possible to take revenge on the spin, even if it is brought, that thought was foolish at all!
The Australian batsmen did not have the skills needed to handle Bangladesh’s spin. Aussie batsmen have done well to play Bangladeshi spinners on slow wickets. The hosts got the benefit of it. The Tigers had won the first three matches of the five-match T20i series against Australia for the first time.
However, the hosts could not win the fourth match of the series. The only win in that match was for Australia. They lost to Bangladesh by 3 wickets. Today (Monday) in the fifth and final match of the series, batting first, captain Mahmudullah Riyad’s team got 122 runs on the scoreboard. Australia could not surpass the target of 123 runs.
Tiger bowlers were bowled out for just 62 runs. This is their lowest run-scoring record in the T20s. Earlier, Australia had the lowest run-scoring record in the T20s at 69 runs. Bangladesh won the last match by 60 runs and won the 5 match series 4-1.
Bangladesh won the toss and elected to bat at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Mirpur. They lost 8 wickets at the end of the allotted 20 overs and scored 122 runs. Ajira lost his way from the beginning after scoring 123 runs starts with the wicket of opener Dan Christian.
He started the visitors’ innings with captain Matthew Wade. Left-arm spinner Nasum returned him in the second over of the innings. On the offside, Christian wanted to play Nasum’s short-length ball fast. Luck did not help him, the ball missed the bat hit the stumps. Nasum got the wicket with his first ball. Christian was dismissed for 3 off 3 balls.
Mitchell Marsh has become the epitome of Bangladeshi bowlers throughout the series. Nasum also made him his prey. When he came to bowl the fourth and his second over of the Nings, he caught Marsh who was on 4 runs by trapping him in the leg before. Shakib Al Hasan came to bowl his first over in the eighth over of the innings. Bajimat is the left-arm spinner. Wade bowled his second ball.
Later Mahmudullah Riyadh got success with the ball. He returned McDermott with his catch. The next batsmen joined the procession. Shakib took 3 of the next 6 wickets. Mohammad Saifuddin, who got a chance in the XI, took the remaining 3.
Mohammad Saifuddin picked up Alex Carey (3) and Moises Henriques (3) in his first over to play the first match of the series. Henriques caught behind the wicket with a bold carry in the slower. Maiden Shakib came to bowl his third over.
Ashton Turner (1) was caught by Mahmudullah in the return cover. The Tiger all-rounder became the second bowler to reach the 100-wicket milestone in the International Twenty20. Shakib is the only cricketer to touch the 1,000-run and 100-wicket milestone in the International Twenty20. Later, Australia was all out for only 62 runs in Shakib’s spin. Bangladesh won by a huge margin of 60 runs.
Earlier, in the opening match, Bangladesh scored 42 runs from just 4 overs and 3 balls. It seemed that the Tigers were going to get a big run collection. Mehdi hit Turner’s third ball in the fifth over of the innings. The bat-ball was not one, the bat slipped from the hand. Agar was caught in the middle wicket. Mehdi was dismissed for 13 off 12 balls with two fours.
After that, the batting background of the Bangladesh team changed. Ajira turned around from here. The pace of the Bangladesh team’s run became slow like a slow wicket. Shakib came to the wicket after Mehdi’s dismissal. However, Naeem Sheikh could not accompany him for a long time. While trying to reverse sweep Christian, he was also caught by Agar, who returned with 23 off 23 balls. Shakib was defeated when he went to play jump in the last ball of the tenth over of the innings. He fell into the trap of leg before and returned with 11 runs off 20 balls. Captain Mahmudullah could not extend the innings even after settling on the wicket, he was caught back by Agar and made his way to the pavilion with 19 runs off 14 balls.
Soumya, who lost his place in the opening match and reached number four, has somehow reached the double-digit quota today, becoming the second victim of Christian by 16 runs. Mosaddeq Hossain Saikat, who got his first chance in the Australia series, added to his grief. He could not open his run record in the first 6 balls of his game. His influence was felt on the scoreboard. When Afif Hossain was dismissed for 10, Bangladesh lost 8 wickets for 122 runs.
