Mitchell returned with figures of 4/29 in 8.3 overs. (Source: Reuters)
They might have improved their ODI rankings but Bangladesh are still considered to be the minnows in the game and surely there is a reason behind this tag. An instance of this was unfolded at the Oval when Bangladesh batsmen surrendered themselves to the Australia bowling line up without a putting up a fight. Mashrafe Mortaza after winning the toss opted to bat first in their second group match against Australia.
Aussie fast bowler Mitchell Starc displayed a spell of terrific fast bowling when the left-arm bowler scalped a total of four wickets against Bangladesh for his side. The conditions at at the Oval were a perfect one for a bowler like Starc and the Australian did capitalise on them to help his side restrict Bangladesh at a total of 182 runs in 44.3 overs.
Starc began the proceedings for Australia and created enormous amount of pressure on the Bangladesh batsmen from one end while the other bowlers kept on bagging wickets at regular interval.
But the real drama came into play in 43rd over. Tamim Iqbal who was looking dangerous at one end became Starc’s first victim when he was on 95. Tamim tried to pull a short-delivery from Starc but only managed to give a catch to Josh Hazlewood at fine leg. Next came in captain Mortaza. The right-handed batsman somehow managed to survive the first delivery that he faced but the skipper’s stay at the crease was a brief one as he was cleaned up for a duck on the fourth delivery of the over.
Rubel Hossain who came in at number 10 didn’t really waste anytime in the middle. The wood work behind the right-hander was dismantled on the very first ball that he faced. Starc was now on a hat-trick.
He missed out on the hat-trick but had Mustafizur Rahman in all sorts of trouble when an in-swing yorker length delivery just missed the stumps behind him. Starc then bowled Mehedi Hasan in his next over and returned with figures of 4/29 in 8.3 overs.
This is the second group game for both Australia and Bangladesh and both teams haven’t registered a win yet in the tournament. Australia’s match against New Zealand was washed away due to rain while Bangladesh faced a defeat against England in the opener.
