Picture : Twitter / ICC
Adam Zampa’s five-wicket haul and a quickfire 40 from Aaron Finch saw Australia ease to an eight-wicket victory over Bangladesh in a group 1 match of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021 in Dubai .
Put in to bat, Bangladesh slipped to 10 for three and never recovered as all the Australian bowlers fired to dismiss Bangladesh for 73.
Aaron Finch and David Warner made short work of the chase as Australia reached the total with 82 balls to spare to boost their qualification hopes.
The tone was set by Mitchell Starc, who clean bowled Liton Das for a golden duck with the third ball of the innings.
In the next over, Josh Hazlewood undid Soumya Sarkar with added pace before Finch turned to the spin of Glenn Maxwell and the surprise move paid off, Mushfiqur Rahim falling for a single.
Another wicket would fall before the end of the powerplay and it was a key one, with the promising Mohammad Naim picking out Pat Cummins at square leg as the Tigers ended the powerplay on 33 for four.
There was no let-up when Zampa entered the attack, with his first ball seeing Afif Hossain edge to captain Finch at first slip.
Bangladesh skipper Mahmudullah combined with Shamim Hossain to engineer something of a rebuild, reaching 58 for five after an opening 10 overs which included 35 dot balls.
Zampa then struck with consecutive balls as Shamim fell for 19 before Mahedi Hassan was trapped lbw.
The leg-spinner would have to wait patiently through overs from Starc and Cummins for the chance to make it three in three and he was denied his maiden hat-trick as Matthew Wade dropped Taskin Ahmed.
As a consolation, he went on to complete his five-for, taking the final two wickets of Bangladesh’s innings to finish with five for 19, his best figures in T20Is.
With Australia knowing net run rate was crucial, Finch set about chasing the total down as quickly as possible and joined forces with Warner to take 12 runs off Mustafizur Rahman’s first over
Mustafizur’s next was no better as Warner and Finch dispatched him for four boundaries to add 21 to their total.
Taskin responded well to being crashed for consecutive sixes by Finch, clean bowling the skipper but only after he had made 40 off 19 balls as Australia ended the fifth over at 58 for one.
Warner went in the next over, again clean bowled, this time by Shoriful Islam as Australia completed the powerplay needing only seven runs for victory.
Mitchell Marsh needed only three balls to complete the job, finishing the game in style with a six as Australia eased home.
Scores in brief
Australia beat Bangladesh at Dubai International Stadium, Dubai by eight wickets
Bangladesh, 73 all out in 15 overs (Shamim Hossain 19, Naim Mohammad 17; Adam Zampa 5/19, Josh Hazlewood 2-8)
Australia 78/2 in 6.3 overs (Aaron Finch 40, David Warner 18; Taskin Ahmed 1/36, Shoriful Islam 1/9)
Player of the Match: Adam Zampa (Australia)
