Australia outclass sorry Tigers in their Super Eight opener

Australia beat Bangladesh by 28 runs via DLS method in their rain-interrupted opening Super Eight fixture of the ongoing T20 World Cup at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in North Sound. 

Travis Head (31 off 21) and David Warner went hard in the powerplay chasing a modest target of 141 and set up the easy win against a below-par Bangladesh after Pat Cummins’ hat-trick. 

Warner (53* off 35) was excellent with the bat as he looked to use the shorter side of the ground and take advantage of the wind.

Bangladesh lacked intent throughout their innings as no one barring Towhid Hridoy had a strike-rate of over 140 (minimum 15 runs).

Australia were more aggressive than Bangladesh up front with the bat and that really was the difference between the two sides. 

Bangladesh got an opportunity to put Australia under pressure early but Warner was dropped by Hridoy off Tanzim Hasan Sakib in the second over. 

The drop hurt Bangladesh badly as the dynamic duo pummelled both pace and spin, going at about ten runs an over in the first six overs. 

Rishad Hossain broke the partnership of 65 by getting Head leg-before in the seventh over with a beautiful leg-break.

Captain Marsh was dismissed in the same way in Rishad’s next over. 

Australia were 100-2 after 11.2 overs when rain stopped play for the second time during Australia’s innings.

Earlier, Hridoy made a breezy 40 after Najmul Hossain Shanto’s 41 but Bangladesh were restricted to 140-8 after 20 overs.

Cummins starred with the ball with a hat-trick. Mahmudullah, Mahedi Hasan and Hridoy were his victims. This was the first hat-trick of this year’s T20 World Cup. 

Adam Zampa (two for 24) was also among the wickets. 

Asked to bat first, Bangladesh were off to the worst possible start as they lost opener Tanzid Hasan early.

Mitchell Starc looked to use the breeze by going full and taking the ball away from the southpaw and a little under edge saw him get cleaned up for a duck. 

Najmul Hossain Shanto showed positive  intent against both the new-ball bowlers. He was the aggressor in the partnership of 58 off 48 balls between him and Litton Das.

Litton, on the other end, played out a maiden off Josh Hazlewood in the second over and took 10 deliveries to get off the mark. 

He did get a couple of boundaries away off Starc later but generally struggled to get going on a pitch that looked decent for batting.

Zampa got the better of him in the ninth over as a desperate attempt to bail himself out of trouble with the sweep went wrong. 

The wicketkeeper-batter scored 16 off 23. 

Bangladesh made an experiment by sending Rishad up the order to counter Australia’s spin duo but it did not come off as Glenn Maxwell snared him next over.

Shanto looked good in this game after a string of low scores. After a great start, he slowed down a touch and just when he needed to up the ante, he missed a straight one from Zampa and got out leg-before. He made 41 off 36.

Shakib Al Hasan (eight) failed again with the bat as he was picked up by the new number one all-rounder Marcus Stoinis. 

Hridoy (40 off 28) looked a million dollars with the bat with his strong strikes on the on side. But the others could not really put the foot down and Bangladesh fell well short of the average first-innings winning score.