Tigers leave the Kangaroos rattled

Bangladesh bowlers maintained their stranglehold over the Australian batsmen and executed their plans with clarity and ease after Australia opted to bat first at the Sher-e-Bangla Stadium in Mirpur after facing a 23-run defeat in the first game in which they had elected to field first.

With conditions in Mirpur being conducive to slow bowlers and historically having had produced low-scoring matches that is far from ideal T20I standards, as demonstrated in the latest match, Australia came up with a different approach of tackling the Bangladeshi spinners with caution, early in their innings. However, credit must go to the Tigers who kept a tight leash on the relatively inexperienced Australian batting line-up. And later on, in the second half of the game witnessed the hosts batsmen made sure that their bowlers' efforts did not go in vain even though they had struggled, if not more than their counterpart, to chase down the target. 

Bangladesh knew that the Aussies have not been able to post past 140 runs in their last six innings in Asia and skipper Mahmudullah Riyad had the belief in his bowlers and they delivered accordingly.

Off-spinner Mahedi Hasan once again struck early for the Tigers and dismissed Alex Carey on 11 in the third over. Best bowler of the game for the Tigers yesterday was surprisingly not a spinner this time around. It was the wily left-arm seamer Mustafizur Rahman who undone Josh Phillipe with his trademark slower delivery down the leg side where the right-hander had little clue.

Australia failed to make an impact in the power play yet again, adding 32 while losing 2 wickets, after struggling in the first game in which they scored 28 for 3 after six overs.

In-form Mitchell Marsh once again stood tall alongside Moises Henriques as the visitors tried to stage a comeback. Although the pair added a resilient 57 for the third-wicket, however it was the Tigers bowlers who managed to dry up the boundaries in the middle overs against the Aussies' favour.

When Henriques was eventually bowled on 30 off 25 balls while trying to slog Shakib Al Hasan, Australia were 88 for 3 with 28 balls remaining in their innings and were feeling the heat, both literally and figuratively.

Much like the first game, Marsh tried to take on the bowlers but fell victim to young left-arm pacer Shoriful Islam who got the outside edge to dismiss the right-hander on 45 off 42 balls.

The disciplined bowling from the Tigers proved a little too much for the Men from Down Under as they managed to add only 31 runs in the last five overs,  losing four wickets in the process. Eventually they ended up posting a miser total of 121 for 7 in 20 overs.

The collective approach from the Bangladeshi bowlers stood out. The hosts bowled 50 dot balls to Australia who looked rather ordinary when attempting to go for the late launch.

Mustafizur has remained the pick of the bowlers bagging three wickets while conceding just 23 runs from his four overs while Shoriful picked two as all the Bangladesh bowlers had played their part to prevent the Kangaroos from notching up their tempo at any stage of their innings.

Bangladesh undoubtedly backed their strength of taking the pace off the ball regularly and largely contributed in paving the way for the second consecutive win over the Aussies.