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Australia made to toil hard to win the 1st
ODI |
April 23, 2006 (Click to see the
Scorecard)
 The
World Champions Australia were made to toil hard
under the sun in chasing a moderate target of
196. Adam Gilchrist started off the Australian
chase with a bang getting a 28-ball fifty with
some spanking shots on both sides of the wicket.
Gilchrist was the first man to go for Australia
after he picked the wrong ball to sweep from
young left arm spinner Abdur Razzak. Gilchrist
was out for a 46-ball 76 and when he was out the
Australians were at 96 for 1 after 10.5 overs.
The Australians then took about 33 more overs to
score the remaining 100 runs as the Bangladeshi
spinners spun a web around them and made life
extremely difficult by not bowling any loose
deliveries. The pair of Hussey and Lee
eventually saw the Australians through but not
before they spent quiet a lot of time at the
crease.
Abdur Razzak picked up two more wickets after
Gilchrist that of Andrew Symonds and Ricky
Ponting both getting out to lbw decisions like
Gilchrist. Razzak bowled a superb spell mixing
up his slow left arm orthodox with some terrific
arm balls as the Australian batsmen struggled to
make up their minds whether to play on the
frontfoot or the backfoot. The other senior left
arm spinner Mohammad Rafique had suffocated the
Aussies from his end giving away nothing and
ending his quota of 10 overs with just 14 runs.
He however couldn’t get any wicket. Razzak ended
up with 3 for 36. But for Gilchrist’s knock,
Australia could have lost this match as their
batsmen struggled to keep the runs ticking
against the turning ball. Gilchrist after
sighting a couple of overs tore apart the
Bangladeshi attack smashing them for 9 fours and
5 sixes before going down to Razzak. Infact it
was sweet revenge for Razzak after getting hit
for a couple of sixes from the left hander.
Bangladesh this morning had won a good toss and
elected to bat with the conditions perfectly
suited for the batsmen. But their top order with
the exception of skipper Habibul Bashar faltered
playing some mindless shots and the innings
eventually closed at 195 all out with 3 full
overs to go. Bashar had got useful partnerships
with Aftab Ahmed and Khaled Mashud and
Bangladesh at one stage looked to get over 220.
And that would have been a total that could have
given Bangladesh a chance of winning this game
with the track aiding the spinners as the match
went along. Bradley Hogg, the chinaman bowler
took three wickets including his 100th one in
ODIs after Nathan Bracken and Brett Lee had done
the damage to the top order taking a couple of
wickets each. This match saw the One Day
International Debut of the young off spinner Dan
Cullen who bowled a tight spell but wasn't lucky
enough to take a wicket.
Adam Gilchrist who played that swashbuckling
knock was rightly awarded the Man of the Match
as he single handedly took the game away from
Bangladesh in just about 11 overs of his stay at
the crease. Australians would like to bat better
the next time they face the Bangladeshi spinners
and for Bangladesh they would believe that they
had a decent outing today. Their batsmen need to
put on their heads down and bat sensibly and
some one needs to play the sheet anchor’s role
often if they have to consistently compete at
the International Level. The next clash is on
the 26th where the Australians would be looking
to play much better cricket than what they did
today and win convincingly.
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