Bangladesh’s nightmarish campaign in the ICC Twenty20 World Cup came to an embarrassing end on Thursday, as they were thrashed by Australia by eight wickets in their final Group 1 match in the Super 12 phase at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Thursday.
Bangladesh saved their worst batting performance for the last as they were bundled out for just 73 in 15 overs, their second lowest total in T20Is and in T20 World Cups, after they were sent to bat first.
Shamim Hossain (19), Mohammad Naim (17) and skipper Mahmudullah (16) were the only batters to get into double figures but none of them crossed the 20-run mark in a miserable batting display from the Tigers.
Australian bowlers toyed with the Bangladesh batters, with Adam Zampa taking career-best 5-19 while Mitchel Starc and Josh Hazlewood took two wickets each.
In reply, skipper Aaron Finch’s unbeaten 40 off 20 balls and Mitchell Marsh’s unbeaten 16 off just five balls took the Aussies to 78-2 in just 6.2 overs, as they brought up the second biggest win ever in T20 World Cups in terms of balls in hand.
Pacers Taskin Ahmed and Shoriful Islam took one wicket each whereas the experienced Mustafizur Rahman leaked 32 runs from his two overs.
Bangladesh’s misery started from the very first over of the contest when Starc bowled a perfect yorker to shatter Liton Das’ stumps and dismiss him for a golden duck.
Bangladesh didn’t have Shakib Al Hasan at number three, whose tournament ended abruptly owing to a hamstring injury, and his replacement Soumya Sarkar (five) became Hazlewood’s first scalp of the day by chopping the ball onto his stumps in the second over.
Mushfiqur Rahim departed in the following over for one as he was trapped leg-before wicket by Glenn Maxwell and Naim also joined him in the dressing room in the sixth over.
Zampa came into the attack in the seventh over with Bangladesh already stuttering at 33-4 and made sure the Tigers could not recover from the early slump.
Zampa dismissed Afif Hossain for a duck in the first ball of his spell, as the left-hander edged the ball straight to Finch at slip.
Shamim and Mahmudullah then added 29 runs for the sixth wicket to take them across the 50-run mark before Zampa broke the partnership by removing the former, who was caught behind, and then trapped Mahedi Hasan in front for a golden duck in the following delivery.
Mahmudullah, Bangladesh’s last hope, perished in the 13th over off Starc and then Zampa ended proceedings with a double strike to complete his maiden five-wicket haul in T20Is.
Australia needed to chase the meagre target inside 8.1 overs to overtake South Africa in net run rate, who were second in the Group 1 table, and the Aussies accomplished their goal comfortably in the end.
Skipper Finch came out all guns blazing, hitting two fours and four sixes in his 58-run opening stand with David Warner (18) which took only five overs.
Taskin clean bowled Finch and Shoriful dismised Warner but they were nothing but consolation wickets.
Marsh hit two fours and a six to end the chase in just 38 deliveries, adding another ignominy for Bangladesh in T20 World Cups.
After the result, Bangladesh ended their campaign in the Super 12 with five defeats in as many matches.
They lost by five wickets against Sri Lanka, got crushed by eight wickets by England, lost a last-ball thriller against the West Indies by three runs and were outclassed by South Africa by six wickets.
Earlier, Bangladesh qualified for the Super 12 as the runners-up of Group B in the first round, with wins against Oman and Papua New Guinea after losing against Scotland in their tournament opener.
