Australia’s batting troubles continue as Bangladesh take 2-0 series lead

Bangladesh put on another clinical performance to win the 2^nd T20I in Dhaka by 5 wickets as Australia’s batting woes on slow pitches continued. Mustafizur Rahman’s 3-23 restricted the visitors to a sup-par total of 121 in the first innings, and despite some troubles early on, the hosts chased down the target in 18.4 overs to take a 2-0 series lead.

After struggling against the spinners in the opening encounter, it was the Bangladeshi left-arm seamers who made the inroads in the 2^nd T20I with Mustafizur Rahman and Shoriful Islam picking up five wickets between them to peg back the Australian batters.

Once again, both Australian openers were dismissed inside the powerplay with Alex Carey miscuing a slog straight into the hands of mid-on before Mustafizur Rahman completely bamboozled Josh Philippe with an off-cutter that bowled him round his legs.

As has been the case throughout Australia’s recent T20I outings, Mitchell Marsh (45 off 42) rescued the visitors and put together a steady partnership of 57 with Moises Henriques to give Australia the perfect platform to go hard at the back end of the innings.

However, Australia’s innings collapsed after both set batsmen – Marsh and Henriques – were dismissed by Shakib Al Hasan and Shoriful Islam. The visitors scored only 22 runs and lost 4 wickets in the final four overs as Mustafizur Rahman unleashed his entire bag of tricks to remove both Matthew Wade and Ashton Agar and restrict Australia to 121-7 from 20 overs.

Bangladesh endured a nervy start to their run-chase with Mitchell Starc cleaning up Soumya Sarkar with a fiery inswinger before Josh Hazlewood got one to sneak through Mohammad Naim’s bat and pad and send the off-stump flying.

Shakib Al-Hasan played a vital cameo off 26 off 17 deliveries to get the innings going, but Andrew Tye deceived the all-rounder with a knuckleball to bring the visitors back into the game. The spinners Ashton Agar and Adam Zampa then combined to remove Mahedi Hassan and the captain Mahmudullah, leaving the hosts in a spot of bother at 67-5 in the 12th over.

However, with only 121 to get, the required run-rate was never out of sight for Bangladesh, and Afif Hossein eased the pressure with a six off Andrew Tye and a delightful cover drive against Mitchell Starc. Hossein shared a 56-run partnership with Nurul Hasan (22* off 21) and finished with 37 from 31 balls to guide Bangladesh home with eight balls to spare to take them just one win away from a landmark series victory over Australia.