Australia v Bangladesh

The World Champions Take On the Dark Horse
The world champion takes on the minnow Bangladesh in the second round of world cup on Saturday. Bangladesh has already proved their mettle by entering the second round by defeating India. Australia had not yet lost a match in this world cup. Thus the match was being anticipated as a thrilling encounter between the champions and a rising cricket nation. The match however got delayed due to bad weather. Thus it was reduced to 22 overs each side. The curtailed match was expected to see some fireworks from the batsmen.

Coin rolled in the favor of Ponting
Ricky Ponting won the toss for Australia in the curtailed match against Bangladesh. He elected to field first. The decision was taken in the wake of moisture held by the pitch. Batting was definitely going to be difficult in the early hours of the match. Bangladesh started off with disadvantage.

Australian pace battery started their hunt
The Kangaroo bowling pair Nathan Bracken and Glenn McGrath started oozing out fire that has made them the world champions. From both the ends they attacked the Bangladeshis with equal zeal. McGrath was spot on with his impeccable line and length and on the other hand Bracken was exuberating superb swing. Nathan Bracken scalped 2 wickets giving away 20 runs in 4 overs. The old warhorse McGrath tightened the shackles on the batsmen and refused to give away any advantage in form of runs. He settled for a bowling statistics of 3 wickets for 16 runs from 5 overs. The other successful bowler from the innings was Shaun Tait who picked up one wicket. He gave away 28 runs in 4 overs scalping a wicket. The rest of the bowlers however did not get much of a chance to display their expertise with the ball.

Clueless Bangladeshi batting
The Bangladeshi batting was completely clueless as how to encounter the storming Australian bowling. The opening pair could not put up any resistance to the daunting Australian bowling. First to walk towards the dressing room was Tamim Iqbal when the scoreboard read 4 for Bangladesh. He scored 3 runs from 14 balls. His fellow opener Shahriar Nafees was in even worse condition as he could stand hardly another 6 balls before his stumps were uprooted by McGrath. He scored 1 run from 4 balls and stayed there for just 15 minutes of the match. The next pair however stood there for few overs and added some valuable runs to the scorecard. Aftab Ahmed put on 11 runs from 7 balls and Saqibul Hasan scored 25 runs from 36 balls. After their exit Bangladesh was stranded on 65 runs for 5 wickets in 16.2 overs. The next pair of the skipper Habibul Bashar and Mortaza made an attempt to resurrect the Bangladeshi innings by playing a breezy knock each. Captain courageous made a responsible 24 runs out of 43 balls. Mortaza however took the challenge of taking the fight to the opposition by hitting some hard shots. He scored 25 runs from 17 balls with 2 fours and a six in his kitty. They finished off the innings with a respectable total of 104 runs in the allotted 22 overs loosing 6 wickets in the process.



Indomitable Australian batting
The Australian showed that they are unperturbed any seemingly significant total on the board. The openers Matt Hayden and Adam Gilchrist started off with their impeccable style by dictating terms to the opposition bowler’s right from the start of the innings. They reduced the match to a batting practice by sending the ball all over the park. Adam Gilchrist 8 boundaries and 1 six to score 59 run’s from 44 balls. The Bangladeshi bowlers were not spared by his fellow opener Matt Hayden either. He took them for a ride with 3 boundaries and 3 sixes. Matt Hayden was unbeaten on 47 runs from 39 balls. Australian got past the Bangladeshi total in just 13.5 overs without loosing a wicket. They scored 106 runs to surpass the target.

Australian won by formidable margin
Australia not only won the match but that too in style to prove their dominance in the international cricket. They took home 2 points in this round of the world cup by winning the match by a margin of 10 wickets.

Man of the Match
The man of the match title wet aptly to the veteran pacer Glenn McGrath for his feat with the bowl. He scalped 3 wickets giving away just 16 runs to reduce the Bangladeshi total to a very achievable for the Australian batsmen.