Hat-trick hero Cummins helps Australia hold Bangladesh to 140-8
Towhid Hridoy made a breezy 40 after Najmul Hossain Shanto’s 41 but Bangladesh were restricted to 140-8 after 20 overs against Australia in their Super Eight opener in the T20 world Cup at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in North Sound.
Pat Cummins starred with the ball with a hat-trick. Mahmudullah, Mahedi Hasan and Hridoy were his victims.
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 intent against both the new-ball bowlers. He has been the aggressor in the partnership between him and Litton.
Litton Das played out a maiden off Josh Hazlewood and took 10 deliveries to get off the mark.
He did get a couple of boundaries off Starc later but generally struggled to get going on a pitch that looked decent for batting.
Adam 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.
He, though, added 58 off eight overs with Shanto to help Bangladesh recover after an early stutter.
Bangladesh made an experiment by sending Rishad Hossain up the order 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.
Towhid 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.
