MIRPUR – The number that hung over the Shere Bangla National Stadium on Sunday afternoon was not the target on the scoreboard. It was something older and more uncomfortable for Australian cricket: the fact that they had never, in any format, lost an ODI series in Bangladesh by more than two matches to nil. With three overs of their chase gone and three wickets down, that number was in serious danger.
Bangladesh posted 274 for 5 in 50 overs in the third and final one-day international of the series, a total built on the sort of batting that has become the fingerprint of this particular side in this particular home summer. Towhid Hridoy carried it furthest – 83 from 88 deliveries, precise and unhurried until it wasn’t – before Mosaddek Hossain (56 not out from 43 balls) and a hobbling Litton Das, who retired hurt on 48 with suspected cramp and then walked back out to reach a fifty off the penultimate over, turned a competitive total into a daunting one. Australia had already conceded the series earlier this week, losing the second ODI by five wickets under the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method. This was the chance to avoid something altogether more consequential.
It was also Bangladesh’s first toss win of the series. They chose to bat, which turned out to be the right read on a pitch that offered Xavier Bartlett movement with the new ball and then eased into something more agreeable for bats as the afternoon deepened.
Bartlett, returning in his first over as in the previous two matches, had Soumya Sarkar inside-edging a seaming delivery onto his stumps in the fourth over without a run scored. The pattern from the first two games was repeating: early Australian pressure, early Bangladeshi wickets, and then a refusal by the hosts to collapse further. Tanzid Hasan and Najmul Hossain Shanto – the stand-in captain after Mehidy Hasan Miraz was ruled out with concussion, having taken a blow to the helmet late in the second match – built a 51-run second-wicket stand that reset the innings.
Matt Renshaw ended both partnerships. He dismissed Tanzid, who mistimed an attempted loft off the off-spinner to Riley Meredith at mid-on, and then Shanto, who swept across the line and under-edged onto his stumps. It was the kind of contribution that underlined the extent of Australia’s personnel problems this tour. Their off-spinner had done more with the ball than any of their front-line quicks, and Josh Inglis – promoted to open after Matt Short’s three consecutive ducks prompted a reshuffle – found the chase beginning with his side in trouble.
What Bangladesh built after that point was the argument that the series already made: that the middle order is not a problem to be papered over but a genuine batting unit. Hridoy came in at four and played through the eye of the innings, his fifty arriving in the 30s of balls before he settled into something more calculated. Litton, at five, retired hurt before he had truly got going, which brought Mosaddek to the crease with nine overs to bat and a mandate to accelerate.
Mosaddek’s fifty came off 43 balls, with a straight six off Adam Zampa – the leg-spinner who went wicketless for the second time in the series – as the shot that confirmed his intentions. He and Hridoy took the score from 142 to 246 before Hridoy was caught at deep midwicket off Ben Dwarshuis for 83, a wicket that came too late to change the trajectory of the innings. Litton returned in the final two overs, batted through what must have been considerable discomfort to reach 50 from 75 balls, and Bangladesh finished with a total that felt substantially larger than the scorecard suggested, because of what it would ask of an Australian batting lineup that had not solved the problem of subcontinental conditions in five days of trying.
Cooper Connolly, opening alongside a promoted Inglis, was the early aggressor in the chase, hitting through the line with the freedom of someone with nothing to lose. He was also, within eleven overs, the last remaining resource at the crease as Australia’s top order disintegrated. Inglis, Renshaw and a third batsman had all departed, leaving Connolly carrying whatever hope remained. According to ESPNcricinfo, Australia were 70 for 3 from 11 overs at that stage, chasing a target of 275.
Whether they can close that gap will determine whether this becomes the series result it looks like becoming. Bangladesh have not beaten Australia in an ODI series three matches to nil. No touring side has inflicted an ODI whitewash on Australia in a series of this length in this decade. The first two matches told the same story – Bangladesh winning the first by 86 runs under DLS after Mosaddek’s 86 on return from a four-year absence from the format, and the second by five wickets with 36 balls remaining – and the third told it in the batting innings that just ended. Bangladesh have now won successive ODI series at home against New Zealand and, in all likelihood, Australia, a run of form that their white-ball program has been building toward for several seasons.
There are three T20 internationals to follow, beginning in Chattogram on Wednesday. For Australian cricket, the more pressing question is what their ODI group looks like between now and the next 50-over World Cup cycle – a squad missing Mitchell Marsh and Travis Head for this tour, yes, but one that has nonetheless been outplayed in every decisive phase of all three matches. Bartlett’s two wickets per game and Renshaw’s part-time off-spin have been bright spots. Almost nothing else has.
On the Shere Bangla outfield, as the Australian chase moved into its middle overs, the question was no longer whether Bangladesh could win the series. They had done that days ago. The question now was whether they could do something no side had managed against Australia in this format: finish it without losing a single match.
