Bangladesh batsmen fail again

CRICKET: DARWIN, Australia, Sept 6 - Bangladesh's batsmen again failed as they fell to another demoralising defeat in their one-day series against Australia at the TIO Stadium here on Saturday.

After the tourists fielded well to restrict Australia to 198 for five from their 50 overs, they were unable to capitalise on a fine half-century from opener Tamim Iqbal and were dismissed for just 125 in 29.5 overs in reply.

The 73-run win meant Australia completed a clean sweep in the three-match series, in which the Bangladesh's batting was well below the standard required of an international side.

In the first match they were dismissed for just 74 and lost by 180 runs, then they were bowled out for 117 in the second match on their way to an eight-wicket defeat.

Bangladesh were again in big trouble early in the chase Saturday, slumping to 22 for three before Iqbal and Shakib Al Hasan, who had also done well with the ball, steadied the ship.

The pair put on 60 to lift the visitors back into the match, but when the latter fell for 27 the rot set in again.

Medium pacer James Hopes (3-30) conceded 11 runs from his first over but bounced back to take the vital wicket of Al Hasan and then two more quick scalps as Bangladesh lost 5-21 to slump to 8-103 as all hope was lost.

Man-of-the-match Iqbal eventually fell for 63 from just 69 balls, holing out to Shane Watson (2-8) when he knew he was running out of partners.

Their cause was not helped by the fact that they without number 11 Shahadat Hossain, who picked up a hand injury in the field.

Earlier, on a slow wicket that suited the Bangladesh spinners, the tourists did well to restrict the home side after Australia won the toss and elected to bat.

  AUSTRALIA
S. Marsh b Farhad Raza 				30
S. Watson run out 				27
M. Clarke run out 				25
M. Hussey not out 				57
D. Hussey run out 				11
B. Haddin c Alok Kapali b A. Razzak 		16
C. White not out 				22
Extras (1lb, 9w) 				10
TOTAL (for five wickets) 			198

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-41 (Marsh), 2-84 (Watson), 3-87 (Clarke), 
4-111 (D Hussey), 5-150 (Haddin).

BOWLING: Mashrafe Mortaza 10-0-55-0 (1w), 
	 Shahadat Hossain 6-0-37-0 (2w), 
	 Farhad Reza 10-0-43-1 (2w), 
	 Shakib Al Hasan 10-0-25-0, 
	 Abdur Razzak 10-1-22-1, 
	 Mahmudullah 4-0-15-0.
 
BANGLADESH
Tamim Iqbal c Clarke b Watson 			63
Junaid Siddique c White b Clark 		 0
Mohammad Ashraful  c Clarke b Clark 		 3
Alok Kapali b Johnson 				 0
Shakib Al Hasan c M Hussey b Hopes 		27
Mahmadullah b Hopes 				 1
Dhiman Ghosh lbw Hopes 			 	 1 
Farhad Reza c D Hussey b Watson 		 0
Abdur Razzak b D Hussey 			14
Mashrafe Mortaza not out 			 8
Shahadat Hossain absent hurt			-
Extras (b2 lb2 w4) 				8
TOTAL (for nine wickets) 			125

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-2 (Junaid Siddique), 2-13 (Mohammad Ashraful), 3-22 (Alok Kapali), 
		 4-82 (Shakib Al Hasan), 5-96 (Mamdullah), 6-98 (Dhiman Ghosh), 7-99 
		 (Farhad Reza), 8-103 (Tamim Iqbal), 9-125 (Abdur Razzak).

BOWLING: Bracken 6-1-19-0 (1w), 
	 Clark 5-1-12-2 (1w), 
	 Johnson 4-0-36-1 (1w), 
	 D. Hussey 4.5-0-16-1, 
	 Hopes 5-1-30-3 (1w), 
	 Watson 5-0-8-2.

Australia win by 73 runs
Australia wins series 3-0
Man of the match: Tamim Iqbal (BAN)
Man of series: Mike Hussey (AUS) (AFP)