The Aussies exposed every chink in Bangladesh’s armoury and won an important Group 1 encounter of the T20 World Cup 2021 on Thursday (November 4). Australia dominated their Asian opposition in Dubai and came out on top by 8 wickets with over 13 overs to spare.
In one of the shortest games of the competition, Australia bundled out Bangladesh for just 73 – one of the lowest ever team totals in T20 World Cup history. It took the Aussies just 15 overs to run through a struggling batting line-up, which also looked woefully short of confidence and resilience.
Only three Bangladeshi batters – Mohammad Naim (17), Mahmudullah (16) and Shamim Hossain (19) – could reach the double digits on the day as they kept losing wickets at short intervals and at no stage looked like posting a competitive total.
Wristspinner Adam Zampa had a fruitful outing. Proving to be the real destroyer with the ball for his team, he picked a rare five-fer. Zampa ended with figures of 5/19 off his four overs. He was on a hat-trick at one point during the innings but couldn’t get there.
The 29-year-old, who has looked the most in-form of the Aussie bowlers, had an indifferent outing versus England but came roaring back here.
Mitchell Starc (2/21), Josh Hazlewood (2/8) and Pat Cummins (1/6) also had a field day with the ball. In a way, it’s their presence that forced Bangladesh to try and attack Zampa. The Aussie quicks exploited the seed of doubt and dip in the belief that Bangladesh batters carried with them after being dismissed for 84 in the previous match against South Africa’s pacers.
With their bowlers making short work of Bangladesh batting, Australia’s task to win and secure a heavy NRR boost became that much easier. To be ahead of South Africa in the net run rate, Australia needed to achieve their 74-run target in 8.1 overs.
Keeping that in mind, skipper Aaron Finch and David Warner looked to push the accelerator from the very first ball. The latter couldn’t time it as well, but the former was in no mood to offer a respite to Bangladesh bowlers. He blasted a 40 off just 20 balls before being dismissed. Warner also hit three boundaries in his 14-ball 18.
No.3 Mitchell Marsh played a perfect little cameo, scoring an unbeaten 16 off just five balls, including a six to finish off the match in just 6.2 overs. Marsh and Finch allowed Australia to take a big lead on the NRR count over the South Africans.
While the Proteas have an NRR of +0.742, Australia are now well ahead with +1.031. Both the teams have three wins from their four matches, respectively. They have one game each remaining on Saturday (November 6). While Australia take on West Indies, SA face group toppers England.
A win for either team will take their points tally to 8 from 5 matches but in taking their NRR above, Australia have made sure that, unless they are defeated heavily by Windies, it is them who’ll go through even if both sides win.
West Indies could’ve been the other team still alive in the semi-finals race if not for their heavy loss to Sri Lanka in Abu Dhabi on Thursday (November 4). They joined the Lankan Lions and Bangladesh in the list of teams eliminated from Group 1 of the Super 12 stage.
England are already through with 4 wins from 4 matches.
Brief scores
Bangladesh 73/10 in 15 overs (Hossain 19; Zampa 5/19, Hazlewood 2/8) lost to Australia 78/2 in 6.2 overs (Finch 40, Marsh 16*; Islam 1/9) by 8 wickets
