Australia easily beat Bangladesh in the first T20I

Australia beat Bangladesh by four wickets on Wednesday, riding on a fine 47 from Cooper Connolly after some fine bowling from Adam Zampa and Joel Davis. The visitors chased down a modest target of 132 with 10 balls to spare in the first match of the three-match T20I series at the Birshreshtha Flight Lieutenant Matiur Rahman Cricket Stadium. The win took them 1-0 lead in the series.

Bangladesh, led by Towhid Hridoy, who was captaining for the first time in place of the injured Liton Das, got wickets early. After in-form Shariful Islam dismissed opener Josh English for just 5 runs, Mustafizur Rahman dismissed Mitchell Marsh (13). As a result, Australia lost 2 wickets for 38 runs in 4.5 overs.

But Connolly continued to attack the Bangladeshi pacers. He was just three runs away from his maiden T20 international half-century when he was caught for a six off debutant Abdul Ghaffar Saqlain.

His blistering innings of 47 runs off just 27 balls, featuring 4 fours and 3 sixes, took Australia close to victory.

Conley added 40 runs for the third wicket with Tim David. David also scored 20 runs off 16 balls before being dismissed for a six by Sheikh Mehedi Hasan.

Matthew Renshaw and debutant Nikhil Chowdhury had a chance to finish the match, but they were dismissed for 18 runs off the balls of Saqlain and Rishad Hossain.

In the end, debutant Davis and Xavier Bartlett guided Australia to victory in 18.2 overs, with Davis remaining unbeaten on 7 and Bartlett on 4.

Among Bangladeshi bowlers, Saqlain took the most wickets with 2 wickets for 32 runs. Apart from this, Shariful, Mostafizur Rahman, Mehedi and Rishad took one wicket each.

Earlier, Bangladesh, who won the toss and elected to bat first on a good pitch for batting, were all out for 131 runs with one over remaining.

Zampa and Davis demolished the hosts’ batting line-up. Zampa took 3 wickets for 18 runs and Davis took 3 wickets for 17 runs. In this innings, Australia’s spinners took a total of 9 wickets, which is the best record for their spinners in T20 cricket. At the same time, this is the first time that spinners have taken 9 wickets in a T20 match on Bangladesh soil.

Openers Tanjid Hasan, Tamim and Saif Hasan, gave Bangladesh a good start. After scoring 26 runs in the opening partnership, Tanjid was dismissed (10 runs off 9 balls) while playing a shot off left-arm pacer Spencer Johnson.

Soon after, Saif Hasan was also dismissed by Renshaw’s part-time off-spin, leaving Bangladesh at 39/2 in 4.5 overs.

Hridoy, who led the team for the first time as Bangladesh’s 13th captain, hit a six off his first ball, but was dismissed for just 8 runs off a jumper.

Soumya Sarkar was dismissed by this leg-spinner after scoring 17 runs and Renshaw quickly dismissed the dangerous Shamim Hossain Patwary.

Davis then took two wickets in quick succession, dismissing Parvez Hossain Emon and Saqlain – both for 10 runs.

Sheikh Mehedi’s unbeaten 29 off 22 balls, including four fours, helped Bangladesh build a fighting capital. Rishad (3), Shariful (7) and Mostafizur Rahman (7) gave him some company towards the end.