Australia end ICC World T20 2014 with comprehensive 7-wicket win over Bangladesh
Australia beat Bangladesh by 7 wickets in World T20
By Nishad Pai Vaidya
Mirpur: Apr 1, 2014
Australia ended their disappointing ICC World T20 2014 campaign with comprehensive seven-wicket victory over Bangladesh at the Sher-E-Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur. Coming into this game, both sides had lost all their matches in the tournament and there wasn’t anything to play for. Shakib Al Hasan and Mushfiqur Rahim’s 112-run partnership helped Bangladesh score 153 for five, but the Australian openers started off in attacking fashion and put Australia on course.
Since it was a dead rubber, both sides made changes to their team. James Muirhead and Brad Hodge made way for Daniel Christian and Nathan Coulter-Nile. For Bangladesh, Mominul Haque and Sohag Gazi replaced Shamsur Rahman and Ziaur Rahman. But, the talk of the town was the international debut of the 18-year-old Taskin Ahmed, who replaced the injured Mashrafe Mortaza in the squad for this game.
Bangladesh began in terrible fashion after winning the toss and electing to bat first. Anamul Haque and Tamim Iqbal were dismissed in the powerplay. Shakib and Mushfiqur came together with the former honing the attacking role.
Early on Mushfiqur was measured, but Shakib was attacking, using his feet to the fast bowlers as well. The shot that stood out early on was a pull through mid-wicket that went for six. As the innings progressed, the crowd built up and were cheering every stroke as the partnership grew. Shakib went past his fifty and was consistently finding the boundary while working the singles.
The partnership took Bangladesh past 100, but both fell when they were looking to charge in the slog-overs. In the end, Bangladesh could only muster 153 for the loss of five wickets, when one felt they could have got more.
Aaron Finch and David Warner came on and attacked the bowlers from the word go. Warner was inventive, playing many sweeps during his innings of 48. A lot of them went into the stands over the leg side as the Bangladeshi spinners had no answer to the them. While Warner entertained during his innings of 48, Finch calmly went past 50 and almost went unnoticed during his 45-ball 71.
Cameron White came at No 3. Finch was speeding towards the total and in the end, he was dismissed while trying to cart Al-Amin Hossain over the top. Glenn Maxwell was bowled by Taskin for six in the 1th over.
But in the end, they achieved the target in 17.3 overs to finish the campaign. White remained unbeaten on 18 and George Bailey was on 11. The only highlight of the Bangladesh bowling was when Taskin came onto bowl and the crowd were chanting his name. The disappointment of the World T20 ends for both the teams, but Australia walk away with the honours here and some consolation.
Brief scores:
Bangladesh 153 for 5 in 20 overs (Shakib Al Hasan 66, Mushfiqur Rahim 47; Nathan Coulter-Nile 2 for 17) lost to Australia 158 for 3 in 17.3 overs (Aaron Finch 71, David Warner 48; Al-Amin Hossain 2 for 30) by 7 wickets.
Man of the Match: Aaron Finch
ICC World T20 2014 schedule: Match time table with venue details
ICC World T20 2014 Points Table and Team Standings
(Nishad Pai Vaidya is Correspondent with CricketCountry and anchor for the site’s YouTube Channel. His Twitter handle is @nishad_44)