It was a historic day in Bangladesh cricket history as they defeated Australia for the first time ever in T20Is. The icing on the cake was the fact that they defended their lowest ever total in T20Is to achieve this feat. The Tigers were able to defend 131 as they bowled out Aussies for a meagre 108 in the 20 overs, winning the first of the five T20Is by a huge margin of 23 runs. This is also the first-ever bilateral T20I series taking place between the two nations.
Chasing a modest total of 131, Australia got off to the worst possible start as Mahedi Hasanbowled Alex Carey on the very first ball of the innings. From there on the tone was set by the team in Green and Red as they kept chipping away on the Aussie wickets. By the end of the powerplay, the team in yellow were struggling at 28/3, still requiring 104 from 84 balls.
But there was still belief as Mitchell Marsh, who has been in a good form was still at the crease along with skipper Matthew Wade. But the run-rate pressure got to Wade and he was caught at short fine leg by Mustafizur Rahman off the bowling off Nasum Ahmed, who went onto pick four wickets in the game and bag Mna of the Match Award as well.
With the partners getting out one by one, Marsh couldn’t hold the fort for long either as he was caught by Shorifukl Islam and became Nasuim’s fourth scalp. After that, it was all formalities as Mustafiz knocked Starc’s stumps on the very last ball of the innings to get Australia bowled out in 20 overs.
Earlier in the day, after winning the toss, Australia sent Bangladesh in to bat first. On a low and slow track, Shakib Al Hasan batted with caution and scored a 33 ball 36 to take Bangladesh to a position from where they could accelerate. However, he got outright at the beginning of the death overs and it was Afiuf Hossain with his 17 balls 23 that got the Tigers to 131 at the end of 20 overs.
For Australia, Hazlewood took three wickets. The two teams would now lock horns once again on Wednesday, August 04 in the second game of the series at the same venue of Sher-E-Bangla Stadium in Dhaka.
Mahmudullah, the Bangladesh skipper was excited about the win, He said that while coming into the field they had decided to give it their all in the field and with the ball to be able to have any chance of defending that total. He wants his players to keep the hunger for wins going.
“They are a very good side and we need to tick the boxes we failed today. The hunger needs to be there to win every game for Bangladesh. I am not over the top at the moment, it was a match and it is gone, looking forward to tomorrow's game,” said Mahmudullah at the post-match presentation.
Wade on the other hand was disappointed with the team’s batting effort but lauded the bowers for restricting Bangladesh to such a low score. “I thought the bowlers did a terrific job to restrict them to 130. But having lost 3 for 10, I and Marsh tried to resurrect the innings but unfortunately, we couldn't do that,” said Wade.