CT 2017, Australia vs Bangladesh, 5th Game, Review: Australia denied by rain yet again, share points with Bangladesh

Australia’s chances of going ahead in the competition hit a brick wall as they had to share points with Bangladesh after rain ensured that there was no further play possible. Australia were comfortably placed at 83 for 1 after 16 overs of play. They required a further 100 runs from 34 overs with 9 wickets in hand, which would have never challenged the World Champions.

They would have been way ahead of the Duckworth-Lewis target but to constitute a game, a minimum of 20 overs is required to be bowled. Australia’s innings was four overs short of it hence they were denied full points which put their Champions Trophy campaign under a cloud. They will now have to beat the hosts to keep them in the hunt which might not be enough as net run rates will come into the picture.

Mashrafe Mortaza won the toss for the second time in a row and chose to bat first at The Oval in slightly overcast conditions. Australia’s new-ball attack rocked the top order of their opposition as they found early swing which Bangladesh batsmen failed to negate. Soumya Sarkar (3), Imrul Kayes (6) and Test captain Musfiqur Rahim (9) all fell to single digits making it a good toss to lose for Steve Smith. Only Tamim Iqbal batted with poise as if he carried on from where he left the other day. He played percentage cricket and started opening up after having sussed the pace of the wicket. The opener found support from Shakib (29), with whom he sewed a 69-run 4th wicket stand to get Bangladesh on course to a decent total. Bangladesh fell into deep mire when Shakib was walking back to the pavilion after being struck on the pad by Travis Head in the 30th over. Even a review couldn’t come to his help as it came down to the umpire’s call hence the verdict couldn’t be reversed.

There were no further contributions from a side, who adopted a fail-safe policy of including 7 batsmen. It all came down to Tamim, who was striking it beautifully but there wasn’t much he could have done on his own. Bangladesh, on the back of Tamim, reached 171 for 6 in 40 overs. Smith, after bowling out Hazlewood, got his premier bowler Mitchell Starc back into the attack in a quest of getting the rest of the wickets quickly. After conceding six runs in his first over of his second spell, it was time for Starc to run havoc. He found some reverse swing going and snapped the big wicket of Tamim when he top-edged an attempted pull to long leg.

Tamim played brilliantly and deserved a hundred, which would have been a second consecutive one in this tournament for the opener, but he had to make the long walk back just 5 runs shy of his 10th ODI hundred. After his departure, Bangladesh fell like a pack of cards to the menacing Starc. He struck again in the same over, sending back Mortaza and Rubel off consecutive deliveries and missed out on a hat-trick by a whisker. Starc got the final wicket of the innings in his next over when he again, for the third time in a row, shattered the stumps of a Bangladeshi batsman on the day, the latest one being Mehedi Hasan, who showed resistance to fight it out for 26 balls and made 14 runs. Starc’s second spell figures read 2.3-1-7-4.

Warner started the chase in typical fashion. He was busy from the outset and it was no secret that Australia wanted to knock off the runs as quickly as possible to strengthen their net run rate. He lost his partner Finch (19) – when he played back to a delivery he should have been forward to and was hit on the back leg off Rubel – but was joined by his skipper, who looked in imperious touch. Bangladesh bowled well in patches but they never looked like challenging the Australian batsmen.

Australia needs to win against England and if possible, by a convincing margin. Group A was considered a group of death and rain has further made things interesting. All four teams have a chance of making it to the semi-finals. For viewership, the jostle between four sides is always great to watch.