It seems, that after a disastrous ODI series loss 1-2 against Bangladesh — Australia’s first ever against the opposition — they can finally heave sigh of relief. On Friday, AUS beat hosts BAN in the 2nd T20I in Chattogram, to take an unassailable 2-0 lead, and hence the series as well. While the batting clicked for Bangladesh in the 50 overs, here, batsmen were a complete let down, and one of the bigger reasons for failure.
Bangladesh miss Litton Das
In the first encounter, they were bundled out for 131, with Australia chasing the target in 19th over, and here they could not chase down 197 set on the board. In short, they missed their regular skipper Litton Das, who is not featuring in the T20I series, due to a muscle tear.
Through the entire course of the innings, none of the batters could score a fifty — Saif Hassan scored 42.. every batter got a start but could not capitalise. In fact, the highest partnership was only 53, between Parvez Hossain Emon and Saif Hassan, which did not come at a good pace at all.
In the end Bangladesh fell short by 7 runs, putting a question mark on their batting efficacy without someone like Litton. In the two matches combined so far, only one batter from their side has managed to score over 50 runs — Saif Hassan 62 in 2. The next best is Emon, having scored only 46 in 2. Stand-in skipper Towhid Hridoy has been poor as well with only 43 runs to his name.
Batters falter for Bangladesh
Not to forget the ineffective bowling; the top three bowlers in the series are all Aussies. Joel Davies tops the list with 4 wickets at an average of 9.50, while Adam Zampa has 4 as well. Matt Renshaw, whose primary skill is batting, also has picked up 3 wickets. That only shows, how poor Bangladesh have been, despite putting up a good show last week.
Earlier in the day, the Australian batters, especially Renshaw got going on a tough wicket. The southpaw batter smashed 89 from 52, while Tim David scored 45 from 26, with the duo stitching a partnership of 97 from 50. All this when, they were struggling at 44/3 at the end of the powerplay.
Perhaps Abdul Gaffar Saqlain (1/53) and Rishad Hossain (0/46) are to be blamed, who undid the good work by Nasum Ahmed (2/27), and Mustafizur Rahman (1/34). Now, with the series lost, the last match will be played on June 21, where Bangladesh will have a chance to salvage some pride, and end the proceedings on an equal footing.
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