Australia to stay back

Well the winners of the world cup-India and the runners-up Sri Lanka left Bangladesh long back but, the loser in the quarter-finals will continue to stay in Bangladesh for their upcoming three match one day series starting this week. Sri Lanka last played in Bangladesh in the quarter-finals against England and India against Bangladesh in the very first encounter of the tournament. It is ironical to see the team that quit last in the tournament to have played in Bangladesh first and the team that quit second quit Bangladesh second. But, the team that lost in the quarter-finals will remain in Bangladesh.

In just a week after the world cup got over, Australia are scheduled to play Bangladesh for a three match one day series. There are no test matches coming up between the teams mentioned and neither a T20 game. One has to think of the reasons for having such a bilateral series so soon and involving Bangladesh and Australia. The reason can well be thought of to be that all (including the ICC) expected Australia to win the world cup this time as well and with Bangladesh hosting the trophy, a small bilateral series can be held mid-way for a week's time.

Australia's bilateral series against Bangladesh will end just a day after the fourth edition of the Indian Premier League would have begun. This means that only the players who have retired from playing international cricket for Australia will be seen making it big (may be) in this year's IPL. The list includes Adam Gilchrist, Shane Warne, Shaun Marsh etc to mention a few. With that being a long way to go about, the talks can be restricted to Australia's tour of Bangladesh or Australia's continuance of the world cup. I just can't guess what would be going on in the minds of Aussies.

Aussies unexpectedly lost to India in the quarter-finals of the world cup and their zest for a thrash can well be understood. Though their days of glory have passed away, players like Shane Watson, Brad Haddin, Mike Hussey etc all continue to dominate with the bat with Mitchell Johnson ding it with the ball. And, with all anger against the sub-continent nations put together by the Aussies, one has to nothing but pity the Bangladeshis. Bangladesh are the only nation from the sub-continent not to have faced Australia in the world cup. Australia will definitely avenge their loss to India, Pakistan and Sri lanka against Bangladesh.

What can you say about Australia?

Well Australia's performance against Bangladesh in yesterday's match of the world T20 was very much below par compared to what was expected out of them and against the opposition they were facing. Australia's score against Bangladesh at Bridgetown was 141 which was too less for reasons mentioned above. The total should have been a minimum of 180. But, one can hardly criticize the Aussies for having won their major battle against Pakistan earlier this week at Gros Islet by 34 runs. There should have been a thrashing by Australia and not just a formal reply. A total of 141 was something which even Bangladesh would have chased.

Bangladesh has a history of chasing down a total in excess of 160 against West Indies in the inaugural edition of the world T20 in 2007. Anyways, coming to the match, a thorough look at the scorecard suggests that the notable score from Australia happened to be from a number 7 batsman in Mike Hussey who scored 47. One can guess that the pitch favored the bowlers where batting was definitely a challenge and then, there were the likes of David Warner, Shane Watson, Brad Haddin and Michael Clarke who could have done much with the bat. But, all that they could do was not score above 16 runs.

The second highest score from the Australian innings was from Warner and Clarke who scored 16. Rest of the batsmen who made it to the crease got out scoring single digit scores. The Bangladesh captain - Shakib Al Hasan did not try more than 5 bowlers when he got all of them bowl their complete quota. As said above, the pitch never seemed to give any room to the batsmen, as a result of which the Bangladeshi innings saw two wickets fall with a score of 4 on the board with their openers getting out for a duck and the third batsman getting out for a score which was the next best thing to a duck.

But, though Bangladesh lost the game eventually, their team effort was better than that of Australia. There were four players who scored above ten and two of them above 20 unlike Australia where only Hussey scored above 20. Nannes had a ball when he had four wickets and was the most successful bowler of the match. But, with no prizes for bowlers in that game, the obvious choice for the man of the match award was none other than Mike Hussey who stood there at the crease with 6 batsmen leaving him single. With this, Australia for the 1^st time have won both matches in the pool stage.