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Nasum Ahmed was the hero of the hour for Bangladesh on Tuesday as the left-arm spinner’s four-wicket haul led Bangladesh to beat Australia by 23 runs in the first twenty20 international of the five-match series and seal their first win over Australia in this format.
Batting first, Bangladesh could only manage to score 131 in their innings as the Aussie bowlers bowled tight lines and lengths. But the Tigers put pressure on Australia from the start of their chase as Shak Mahedi Hasan struck in the very first delivery. From there on, it was Nasum-show and the other bowlers supported him through as the Tigers bundled the Aussies for 108 to claim an easy victory.
Put in to bat first, Mohammad Naim Sheikh struck a six off Mitchell Starc in the second ball of the over. But the openers could hardly get a move on as the Aussie bowlers bowled in tight lines.
Soumya was the first to go for two of nine balls as he dragged a Josh Hazlewood delivery from way outside leg stump onto his stumps. Naim managed to move to 30 but was bowled by Adam Zampa when he tried a fancy reverse sweep.
Skipper Mahmudullah Riyad and Shakib Al Hasan put up a 36-run stand but Hazlewood came back and sent Mahmudullah back for 20.
Shakib anchored the Bangladesh innings with his knock of 36 from 33 deliveries, but he could not accelerate in the dying overs as Hazlewood picked his third by rattling Shakib’s stumps off an inside edge.
Afif Hossain’s late knock of 23 off 17 deliveries took Bangladesh to 131. In the final delivery of the innings, Starc rattled Afif’s stumps to become the first Aussie to pick up 50 wickets in T20Is.
Defending 132, the Tigers got off to a brilliant start as Shak Mahedi Hasan struck in the very first delivery of the chase to shatter Alex Carey’s stumps. That start only got better as Josh Philippe was stumped off left-arm spinner Nasum Ahmed’s bowling in the second over, and Moises Henriques was bowled off an inside edge trying to sweep Shakib.
Skipper Matthew Wade and Mitchell Marsh put together a stand to halt the landslide, but they struggled to score runs as the Bangladesh bowlers put a leash on them. Their 38-run stand broke in the 10th over when Wade hit a leg-sided Nasum delivery straight to Mustafizur Rahman at short fine leg to end his struggling knock of 13 from 23 deliveries.
Marsh held one end, but Ashton Agar had to go bizarrely as he trodded on the stumps to get out hit wicket and become Nasum’s third victim.
And the left-arm spinner was the one to remove the big thorn for Bangladesh as he dismissed Marsh for 45. Marsh, trying to get a move on, tried to slog sweep Nasum but could only top-edge it as Shoriful Islam took a good catch running to remove the right-handed batsman.
Mustafiz sent Ashton Turner back and that left Australia requiring 31 off the last two overs. The Aussies could only score seven more runs before Shoriful and Mustafiz cut off their tail to bundle them out for 108.
