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DARWIN (Australia), Aug 30: Australia’s bowling attack ruthlessly exposed Bangladesh’s batting when the world champions cruised to a 180-run win on Saturday in the first of three One-day Internationals.
After Bangladesh captain Mohammad Ashraful won the toss and asked Australia to bat, the visitors bowled well to restrict Australia to 254-8 from their 50 overs.
However, any hopes the Bangladeshis may have had of causing an upset were quickly dashed when the Australian bowlers broke through to crush the visitors.
Only opener Tamim Iqbal with 21 showed any resistance as the rest of the Bangladeshis surrendered meekly to an Australian bowling line-up missing Brett Lee, Shane Watson and Andrew Symonds.
Tasmania’s Brett Geeves took two wickets on his debut, while leg-spinner Cameron White grabbed three in two overs, with the visitors losing their last five wickets for only 15 runs.
Australia were without Symonds, who was sent home Saturday morning after going fishing and missing a team meeting the previous day.
While Bangladesh capitalised on Symonds’ absence that day and notched up a rare win, they were unable to match their opponents in any department this time around.
Australia got away to a solid start with openers Shaun Marsh (76) and James Hopes (22) taking the score to 56 before Hopes skied a pull shot off the bowling of Nazmul Hossain.
Regular partnerships followed as the Australian top order all got starts, but the scoring was kept in check until Mike Hussey (85) was joined at the crease by brother David (24).
Man-of-the-match Hussey played a well-weighted innings, beginning cautiously in the hot and humid conditions before unleashing an array of boundaries in the closing overs.
Although he went wicketless, fast bowler Mashrafe Mortaza (0-31) was the pick of the Bangladeshi bowlers and fellow paceman Shahadat Hossain took three late wickets to finish with 3-42.
Despite Tamim’s bright start, the deficiencies of the visiting batsmen meant a win never looked likely.
“Our bowlers bowled well and we fielded well also, but we didn’t bat well,” Ashraful said. “Once we lost five wickets quickly it was very difficult to come back.”
Scoreboard
AUSTRALIA:
S.E. Marsh b Razzak 76
J.R. Hopes c Mehrab b Nazmul 22
M.J. Clarke c Ghosh b Shakib 14
M.E.K. Hussey b Shahadat 85
D.J. Hussey c Mashrafe b Shakib 24
B.J. Haddin b Kapali 3
C.L. White b Shahadat Hossain 9
M.W. Johnson c and b Shahadat 0
B. Geeves not out 0
EXTRAS (B-1, LB-7, W-6, NB-7) 21
TOTAL (for eight wkts, 50 overs) 254
FALL OF WKTS: 1-56, 2-76, 3-161, 4-201, 5-208, 6-252, 7-252, 8-254.
DID NOT BAT: S.R. Clark.
BOWLING: Mashrafe Mortaza 10-1-31-0 (1nb, 1w); Shahadat Hossain 6-0-42-3 (2nb); Nazmul Hossain 10-0-55-1; Shakib Al Hasan 10-0-46-2; Abdur Razzak 10-0-44-1 (2w); Alok Kapali 4-0-28-1 (1w).
BANGLADESH:
Tamim Iqbal c Geeves b Johnson 21
Mehrab Hossain Jr lbw Clark 0
Mohammad Ashraful lbw b Johnson 5
Raqibul Hasan c D. Hussey b Geeves 14
Shakib Al Hasan c Clark b Clarke 7
Alok Kapali run out 12
Dhiman Ghosh c Haddin b Geeves 1
Mashrafe Mortaza not out 5
Abdur Razzak c and b White 4
Nazmul Hossain c Clarke b White 0
Shahadat Hossain c Clarke b White 0
EXTRAS (B-5) 5
TOTAL (all out, 27.4 overs) 74
FALL OF WKTS: 1-12, 2-28, 3-33, 4-44, 5-58, 6-63, 7-68, 8-72, 9-74.
BOWLING: Bracken 6-1-23-0; Clark 7-1-18-1 (4w); Johnson 6-1-10-2 (1w); Clarke 2-0-7-1; Geeves 5-0-11-2; White 1.4-0-5-3.RESULT: Australia won by 180 runs.
UMPIRES: P.D. Parker (Australia) and A.M. Saheba (India).
TV UMPIRE: B.N.J. Oxenford (Australia).
MATCH REFEREE: Javagal Srinath.
MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Mike Hussey.
—Reuters
