Dan Christian smashed five sixes in an over off Shakib Al Hasan (4-0-50-0) to help Australia beat Bangladesh by three wickets in a low-scoring fourth T20I in Dhaka.
Australia were chasing a paltry 105. Christian was promoted at No. 3 after Mahedi Hasan bowled Matthew Wade in the opening over. He hit a four and five sixes in his 15-ball 39 to take Australia to 49/3 at the end of Powerplay. Ashton Agar then made a run-a-ball 27 to help Australia reach the target with six balls to spare to register their first win in the five-match series. Bangladesh still lead the series 3-1.
Barring Agar and Christian, the other Australian batters made little contribution to the chase. For Bangladesh, Mustafizur Rahman returned impressive figures of 4-0-9-2, while Mahedi (2-17) got two wickets to his name.
Mahmudullah took the same route after winning the toss as he did yesterday: he set a target. Bangladesh named an unchanged XI for the fourth time in the series, while Australia made a couple of changes: they brought in Andrew Tye and Mitchell Swepson for Nathan Ellis and Adam Zampa.
Mohammad Naim (28 runs in 36 balls) and Soumya Sarkar (10 in 8) added 24 in 21 balls before Sarkar fell to Josh Hazlewood (2-24). Coming to bat at No. 3, Shakib struggled throughout his 26-ball stay, scoring 15.
Hazlewood returned in the 10th over. Shakib tried to cut a short delivery but ended up edging to Wade. Bangladesh were 48/2 at this point.
In the next over, Swepson (3-12) removed Mahmudullah and Nurul Hasan in successive balls to reduce Bangladesh from 48/1 to 51/4 in no time. Afif Hossain (20 off 17) and Mahedi (23 off 18) played breezy cameos to help Bangladesh reach 104/9, never a defendable total despite the slow, sluggish Dhaka pitch.
The two teams will play for the one last time in this series on 9 August, for the fifth T20I at the same venue.
Brief Scores: Bangladesh 104/9 in 20 overs (Mohammad Naim 28; Mitchell Swepson 3-12) lost to Australia 105/7 in 19 overs (Dan Christian 39; Mustafizur Rahman 2-9) by 3 wickets with 6 balls to spare. Player of the Match: Mitchell Swepson.