Bangabandhu T20 Series
Bangladesh VS Australia
5th Match Played at SBNCS Dhaka on August 9, 2021
Brief Scorecard
Bangladesh 122/8 in 20 Overs (Mohammad Naim 23, Mahmudullah 19, Soumya Sarkar 16, Mehedi Hasan 13, Shakib Al Hasan 11, Afif Hossain 10, Nathan Ellis 2/16, Dan Christian 2/17)
Australia 62 All Out in 13.4 Overs (Mathew Wade 22, Ben McDormott 17, Shakib 4/9, Saifuddin 3/ 12, Nasum Ahmed 2/8 )
Bangladesh won by 60 Runs
Bangladesh won the Series 4-1
Player Of The Match: Shakib Al Hasan
Player of The Series: Shakib Al Hasan
Tigers' pride got rubbed a bit from the reverse of match four. Top all-rounder Shakib had an off day in the office leaking 30 runs to ageing Dan Christian. But in the last match of series Shakib and Bangladesh roared back line wounded tiger. Responding to Bangladesh below par score of 122/8 Australia was packaged for 62 all out conceding a huge loss of 60 runs. Bangladesh. Not surprisingly Shakib Al Hasan won the player of the match and player of the series award. But in my opinion Mustafiz deserved to jointly win the player of the series honor.
Bruised and battered, tormented and humiliated team Australia, would now be flown back home by specially chartered national carrier Flying Kangaroo “Qantas." Losing series was acceptable. Team tigers can do that in tigers den in ODI. T20 is not the forte of Bangladesh. Wrapping up the series 3-0 winning back to back was an achievement. Australia bounced back in match four. But Bangladesh crashing Kangaroos in the last match bundling them to their lowest ever total of 62 would definitely hurt the aristocracy of Australian cricket. I am sure it would haunt them for a while.
We are sure there would be lot of soul searching back home in Australia .CA will have to respond to many disgruntled persons of Australian cricket family. Their mission to West Indies and Bangladesh crash-landed. Ironically Australia lost the two T20 series by identical margin of 4-1. West Indies is reigning champions, an assembly of tormentors. But humiliation against Bangladesh must be treated an awful performance. Wickets ,surface , playing conditions nothing can be an excuse .Hosts always prepare wicket to suit their strength. It is not that Bangladesh also enjoyed batting on slow low gripping surface. But Australia was poorer.
Few analysts were critical about Shakib and Mahmudullah for the loss of the 4th match. Leaking 30 runs in an over as a consequence of planned assault by ageing Dan Christian was not expected. Yes Mahmudullah could have had other options. But did Shakib not bounce back in Vengeance? Did Mahmudullah not executed yet another plot of defending a low total. Well done team tigers. 4-1 series win would give a shot in the arm for Bangladesh. Players must be given some fresh air after the suffocation of bio bubble. Bangladesh must carry out proper post mortem. There are still some areas for ironing.
Winning the toss and opting to bat on a wicket used earlier in the series Bangladesh made reasonably good start as Mehedi was promoted to open the innings with Naim. Soumya was retained despite of his back-to-back failures in the series. Many including this writer thought he could be rested.
Bangladesh produced the highest first wicket partnership of 42. Australia as a rare case opened the attack with two spinners Aston Turner and Ashton Ager. They also appeared with two leg spinners Adam Zampa and Mitchel Swepson. Naim (23), Mahmudullah (19), Soumya (16) had start but including them none could impress. The slow low gripping nature of the wicket did not let any batsman bat with ease or freedom. To me Nathan Ellis (2/16) is the find of the series for Australia bowled well perhaps taking a leaf from Mustafiz whom David Warner named “Fizz”. He bowled mostly well-concealed slower deliveries. Bangladesh crawled to yet another low score of 122/8. In the 5 matches series Bangladesh score of 131 remained as the highest. Bangladesh successfully defended 131, 127 in the earlier matches. Still there were some thoughts that Australia would overcome the last barrier and fly back home in winning momentum. 
Bangladeshi bowlers producing their best ever team efforts clinically delivered killer dozes. Australia was bundled out to their lowest ever T20I score of 62 all out. Shakib avenged his single over 30 runs leaking appearing with a haul of 4/9 in four overs. He now has 102 wickets from 84 matches a rare milestone. Winning yet another Player of The series he is flying sky high. Saifuddin playing the first match of the series took 3/12. Fizz was not required to bowl more than an over as Australia could bat only 13.4 overs. 60 runs defeat in a T20 match is like Golliaths playing against David. Only two Mathhew Wade (22) and Ben McDormott (17) could reach double figure.
Great series win for Bangladesh by 4-1. Off the 9 matches played between the teams Australia won 5 and Bangladesh won 4. Hope this would create some sense in Australia. They should have let the electronic media carry the matches live for Australian viewers. There were so much to learn from the way say Mustafiz bowled, Shakib displayed all round skills. The plans of Cricket Australia (CA) of experimenting with fringe players failed miserably to earn any dividends
Bangladesh gained in confidence. Young players responded positively. It can now plan to try some fringe players against New Zealand as well resting the tried and tested top players. There are still room for improvement. Return of Mushfique in the middle order and Liton at the top would create flexibilities. Afif may be tried in the top order. Shamim can be used as a floater. Nazmul Shanto, Pervez Emon, Tawhid Hridoy, Aminul Islam Biplob, and few other fringe players can be tested as Kiwis are also coming with fringe players mostly.
BDST: 1308 HRS, AUG 10, 2021
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