Afif, Nurul sink Australia in 2nd T20

Afif, Nurul sink Australia in 2nd T20

Afif Hossain and Nurul Hasan guided Bangladesh through a tricky chase and took them to a five-wicket win over Australia in the second Twenty20 to take a 2-0 lead in the five-match series at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium on Wendesday.

Afif and Nurul remained unbeaten on 37 and 22 respectively to take the Tigers to 123-5 in 18.4 overs to complete Bangladesh’s second straight win over Australia in the shortest format of the game.

Australian bowlers tried hard to defend a low total with Josh Hazlewood, Ashton Agar, Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa and Andrew Tye taking one wicket each but in the end they couldn’t avoid the defeat.

Bangladesh were in a spot of trouble when they were reduced to 67-5 in 11.2 overs but from their Afif and Nurul added 56 runs off 43 deliveries to complete a memorable win for the Tigers.

Earlier, Mustafizur Rahman finished with 3-23 while Shoriful Islam took 2-27 to keep Australia to 121-7 after they opted to bat first.

Mitchell Marsh was the best batsman for Australia once again as he scored 45 off 42 balls, his second 45-run innings in the series, and Moises Henriques made 30 off 25 balls but no other Aussie batsman managed to get into the 20’s.

Bangladesh had earlier won the opening match by 23 runs.

The third T20 will take place on Friday.