An unbroken 56-run sixth-wicket stand between Afif Hossain (37* runs in 31 balls) and Nurul Hasan (22 off 21) helped Bangladesh beat Australia in the second T20I in Dhaka. Chasing 122, Bangladesh slumped to 67/5 in 11.2 overs before Afif and Nurul showed composure, staying till the end to guide Bangladesh reach the target with eight balls in hand to take 2-0 lead in the five-match series.
Having watched Australia flounder in the run chase less than 24 hours ago, Matthew Wade opted to bat after calling the coin toss correctly. Both teams were unchanged from their previous encounter.
Bangladesh began with spinners from both ends. Alex Carey (11) failed again, trying to take the spinners on. Mahedi Hasan (1-12) gave Bangladesh the early breakthrough, in the third over. Mustafizur Rahman (3-23), coming to bowl the last over of the Powerplay, bowled Josh Phillippe (10) round his legs after the latter’s attempted pull took out the leg stump. Australia were 31/2 at this point.
Mitchell Marsh (45) and Moises Henriques (30) steadied the ship, adding 57 for the third wicket to take Australia to a decent position on the slow, low Dhaka pitch. But they lost the grip on the contest once Shakib Al Hasan (1-22) bowled Henriques in the 15th over.
Mustafizur did the most damage to trigger a collapse in Australia’s middle order. In the 18th over, he cleaned up Wade (4) and dismissed Ashton Agar in successive balls to send the visitors on the back foot again. Shoriful Islam (2-27) was equally impressive at the other end, as they restricted Australia to 121/7.
Coming to defend, Mitchell Starc (1-28) and Josh Hazlewood (1-21) cleaned up Soumya Sarkar and Mohammad Naim (9) respectively inside the first four overs to keep Australia into the contest. Shakib played aggressively and hit four fours in his 17-ball 26 before Andrew Tye (1-27) bowled him in the ninth over.
Mahmudullah promoted Mahedi (23) ahead of himself, at No. 4. Mahedi did not disappoint. He and Shakib held the fort to help Bangladesh regain control of the game before Afif and Nurul finished things off in style.
Australia will play Bangladesh next on 6 August for the third T20I to keep the series alive.
Brief Scores: Australia 121/7 in 20 overs (Mitchell Marsh 45; Mustafizur Rahman 3-23) lost to Bangladesh 123/5 (Afif Hossain 37*; Ashton Agar 1-17) by 5 wickets with 8 balls to spare. Player of the Match: Afif Hossain.