Australia win by seven wickets, seal series at 1-1
Australia pull off a convincing seven-wicket win against Bangladesh in the second Test at Chittagong today. The victory also seals the two-Test series at 1-1 after Bangladesh's 20-run win in the opening Test at Dhaka.
Set to score 86 to win the Aussies finished the chase with plenty of overs remaining in the final session. Glenn Maxwell hit the winning runs, a massive six of off-spinner Nasir Hossain, as Australia reached 87-3 in 15.3 overs. Although opener David Warner, who hit a magnificent century in the first innings, was out for eight, he was caught at deep while pulling a bouncer from left-arm paceman Mustafizur Rahman, the visitors were never in trouble to stroke those runs. Maxwell scored an unbeaten 25 and Peter Handscomb scored 16 not out as Australia won the match with a day to spare.
Aussie skipper Smith (16) and Matt Renshaw (22) were the other casualties in that small chase and against a Bangladesh attack that missed the services of off-spin of Mehedi Hasan, who injured his bowling thumb by a nasty Pat Cummins bouncer while batting and did not return to the field during the Australian chase.
Nathan Lyon, the Aussie off-spinner with a match-haul of 13 wickets, was adjudged player of the match while Warner took the player-of-the-series award for scoring centuries in both Tests.
Earlier, Bangladesh were staring down the barrel of defeat as they were bundled out for just 157 half an hour after tea on the fourth day, setting Australia a target of just 86 to win.
Left-arm spinner Steve O' Keefe picked up the last wicket of Mustafizur Rahman after Nathan Lyon had picked up his third consecutive innings haul of six or more wickets -- only the ninth bowler in Test history to achieve the feat.
Bangladesh, having handed Australia a first-innings lead of 72, were 154 for eight -- effectively 82 for eight -- at tea after the afternoon session had first promised a revival with a Mushfiqur Rahim-Mominul Haque sixth-wicket stand of 32 and then a Mominul-Mehedi Hasan Miraz partnership of 20, but the Australians were always on the ball as they continued to snuff out any hint of Bangladeshi resistance. It was Mominul's dismissal 15 minutes before the break raised the possibility of the visitors wrapping up the match by today. Number 10 Taijul Islam could not last very long after the interval, as he was the ninth wicket to fall after the addition of just two more runs when he was bowled by a Lyon arm-ball.
It was off-spinner Lyon again who was the wrecker-in-chief, bagging his third five-wicket haul of the series during the session, having earlier already completed a 10-wicket match haul with the wickets of Tamim Iqbal, Imrul Kayes and Shakib Al Hasan in the morning session.
Bangladesh came to the afternoon session on a wobbly 83 for five, but Sabbir Rahman and Mushfiqur were on a 40-run stand that was looking promising. Five overs into the session however, Sabbir decided to step out to Lyon and was beaten, with wicketkeeper Matthew Wade doing the rest. The sixth-wicket stand was worth 54 runs, but promised much more.
Mominul, who usually bats higher in the order, came in at number eight as Nasir Hossain had gone in and gone out at number four in the morning session. He was looking comfortable, but Mushfiqur's dismissal for 31 in the 52nd over with the score on 129 seemed to be the penultimate nail in the coffin. The Bangladesh skipper, having held fort for more than two hours, fished at a ball from fast bowler Pat Cummins and got an edge.
Mehedi and Mominul added 20, but the Bangladesh batsmen's strategy to employ the sweep against the spinners backfired when Mominul, trying the shot against Lyon of all people, holed out to deep square leg and gave Lyon a deserved fifth wicket.