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.

2nd ODI: Australia vs Bangladesh

On 11th April, second ODI match of the Australia tour of Bangladesh was played at Shere Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur, Bangladesh. The toss was won by the hosts and they chose to bat first.

Tamim Iqbal and Imrul Kayes opened the batting innings for Bangladesh. Both the openers failed to stand for longer time as they could not resist the Aussies bowling attack. At one point of time, they lost 5 wickets and scored only 88 runs in 27 overs. Later on, Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah put up a partnership of 79 runs that helped Bangla's to end up with a decent total to defend. They successfully played for 50 overs and scored a total of 229 runs with the loss of 7 wickets (BAN - 229/7, 50 over). Mushfiqur Rahim was unbeaten scoring 81 runs. Mitchell Johnson picked up 3 wickets.

Aussies needed 230 runs in 50 overs with a very good batting line-up. Shane Watson and Brad Haddin started to play for the team. Shane Watson right from the start of the innings played very aggressively but Brad Haddin kept his calm and gave strike to his partner as much as possible. Brad Haddin did not make it big as he was back to pavilion after scoring only 8 runs in 19 deliveries. Later on, Ricky Ponting joined the party and gave a good company to his partner. It was Shane Watson's day. He cruised in to score 50 runs in just 26 balls and then got his century in 69 delivers. After this, Shane Watson became even more aggressive. He scored 85 runs in just 27 deliveries thereby adding his total score of 185 runs in just 96 deliveries. This was an unbelievable batting performance given by any batsmen so far. He hit 15 fours and 15 sixes in the match. Shane Watson created a new world record for the most number of sixes (15 sixes) in a match. In just 26 overs, Australia managed to chase their target successfully scoring a total of 232 runs with the loss of 1 wicket (AUS - 232/1, 26 over). Shakib Al Hasan was the only bowler whose economy rate was less than 6 (5 runs per over).

Australia won the match by 9 wickets. Man of the match was Shane Watson for his brilliant performance.

If the total was more, then Shane Watson would have broke the record of Sachin Tendulkar and become the highest run getter in a match and would have been in the history book.