April 13, 2011

Australia tour of Bangladesh: Match 3

Third and the final ODI match of the Australia tour of Bangladesh was played today at Shere Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur, Bangladesh. Toss was won by Australia and they elected to bat first.

Shane Watson and Ricky Ponting opened the batting innings for Australia. Right from the start of the innings they started to hit the ball every corner of the ground. First wicket partnership was 110 runs and Shane Watson was the first wicket to fall. He scored a magnificent 72 runs in just 40 deliveries that included 11 fours and 3 sixes. Ponting and Michael Clarke could not complete their half-centuries. They were short of 3 runs just before getting out. Michael Hussey (Mr.Cricket) came in and played an magnificent innings and score 108 runs. This helped Australia to put up a big total against the home team. In 50 overs, they lost 8 wickets and scored 361 runs (AUS - 361/8, 50 over). Abdur Razzak and Mashrafe Mortaza took 3 wickets each.

This was an difficult chase for them as they were playing against the number one team. Bangladesh team started of very well and were very aggressive, they scored 43 runs in just 4.2 overs. In the 4.3 over, they lost their 1st wicket. After this fall, there was a big partnership of 129 runs but this did not help as their run rate was around 6 runs per over. After the second fall, there was few small partnerships which kept them to play till the end. Bangladesh failed to chase the target and they finally ended up scoring a total of 295 runs for the loss of 6 wickets in 50 overs (BAN - 295/6, 50 over). Imrul Kayes was the top scorer for Bangladesh, he scored 93 runs. Mitchell Johnson took 3 wickets for Australia.

Australia won the match by 66 runs. Man of the match was Michael Hussey for his century. Man of the series was Shane Watson for his brilliant all-round performance.

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