With an impressive five-wicket triumph on Wednesday, Afif Hossain and Nurul Hasan guided Bangladesh to a 2-0 lead over Australia in the Twenty20 series. Bangladesh needed an unbroken 56-run sixth-wicket stand between Afif, who struck 37, and Nurul, who scored 22, to reach their goal with eight balls to spare in Dhaka, chasing 122 for the win. Shakib Al Hasan scored 26 runs, but Bangladesh was reduced to 67-5 in the 12th over when Mahedi Hasan was stumped for 23 runs by Adam Zampa.
Despite Mitchell Marsh’s 45 in his side’s opening defeat of the five-match series on Tuesday, pace bowler Mustafizur Rahman claimed three wickets to keep Australia to 121-7.
“It’s wonderful to watch Afif and ‘Sohan’ stand up and bring us over the finish line. shown maturity, “After the victory, captain Mahmudullah Riyad stated.
“And our bowlers up front did a fantastic job of keeping them under 120. Shakib, on the other hand, was crucial in both bowling and batting, demonstrating his importance to the squad.”
Bangladesh has won two consecutive games against their opponents for the first time across forms after their first-ever T20 triumph against Australia in the previous encounter.
Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc, both pace bowlers, struck early, dismissing openers Soumya Sarkar for zero and Mohammad Naim for nine runs, respectively.
With his 17-ball knock and a 37-run third-wicket stand with Mahedi, Shakib helped the hosts battle back.
As Bangladesh sank, medium-pacer Andrew Tye bowled Shakib and Mahmudullah pulled the ball from left-arm spinner Ashton Agar onto his stumps.
However, Afif, a 21-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman, and Hasan, a wicketkeeper-batsman, displayed poise to frustrate the opposing bowling and guide the side to victory.
Prior to Marsh’s wicket, the tourists had lost the opener after being bowled out for 108 in their pursuit of 131. They had fallen from 99-3 to 106-7.
Following the departure of the two openers, Marsh put up 57 for the third wicket with Moises Henriques, who hit 30.
Marsh was caught behind by Shoriful Islam, then Mustafizur struck again in quick succession to dismiss skipper Matthew Wade for four and Agar for zero.
“Should have gotten in the high 130s or 140s,” Wade added, “which would have been a winning score on that course.”
“Both teams’ bowlers have performed admirably. We don’t have a bowling problem; we just need to clean up with the bat.”
The third T20 will be played on Friday, with all of the matches taking place at the same location.
