Bangladesh could manage 122 runs losing eight wickets on a surface that has become a nightmare for the batsmen in the fifth and final twenty20 international of the series against Australia at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium, Mirpur on Monday.
Batting has become incessantly difficult in the slow and low surface of Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium, that many of the visiting Australian cricket team members have termed as their toughest condition ever, and Bangladesh showed another display of irresponsible batting.
Two changes were made in the Tigers' squad for the fifth and final game, Shoriful Islam and Shamim Hossain were rested while Mosaddek Hossain and Saif Uddin came in as replacements.
Australia, learning from their experiences from the previous games, took three spinners in their playing XI which included Adam Zampa, Mitchel Swepson, and Ashton Agar while the off-spin of Ashton Turner was also an option.
This is only the second time when Australia started with spinners from both ends, Turner bowled the first over and Agar bowled the next.
Australia opted for the same policy against India during the 2014 World T20, in a match against India at the same ground where Glen Maxwell and Brad Hodge started from both ends.
Soumya Sarkar was having a nightmare run in the series, he was not dropped from the XI but moved down from the opening and Shak Mahedy Hasan came in with Mohammad Naim to start the innings though the change worked as the openers added 42 runs in 4.2 overs before Mahedy got out in a weird fashion.
The promoted all-rounder tried to muscle the ball over mid-wicket but somehow he lost the grip of his bat and the bat slipped from his hand and before that he miscued one against Turner raising a dolly catch to Agar.
Shakib Al Hasan also did not have a good outing as he was trapped by Zampa after scoring only 11 runs from 20 balls.
Naim's penchant for reverse sweep costing him dearly as for the second occasion in this series he attempted one and lost his wicket, this time he went against Christian and ended up giving a catch to Agar after scoring 23.
Soumya dropped to number four and found his highest score of the series as he scored 16 runs from 18 balls after getting out for 2,0,2 and 8 in the four previous innings.
Afif Hossain tried to accelerate at the end but could not sustain (10), skipper Mahmudullah also fell victim to Agar's clever bowling after scoring quick 19 runs from 14 balls.
Total 61 dot balls were conceded by Bangladesh, which means in the 120 ball game the Tigers failed to score in more than half of the deliveries.
Nathan Elis and Dan Christian took a brace each but it was Christian who was also very economical as he delivered 16 dot balls in his four overs.
Christian told in one of his media engagements than in this series that 120 here is equal to 190 in someplace else and now his side have to chase 123 runs in this sluggish wicket in their last outing.
