BAN vs AUS | 2nd T20I: Tigers look to carry momentum as Aussie search for survival skills in Dhaka

After the historic first win against Australia in T20Is, Mahmudullah’s comments that it was just a match which is over now and the team is not over the top, are reasons enough that Bangladesh have a larger target in sight, which is to win their first-ever bilateral series against Australia. To fulfil that target, the Ti8gers need to improve a lot of things and batting is a major part of it.

A slow start to the innings is a problem that Bangladesh must address in batting as that slow start is causing problems while finishing. Also, the use of Nur-Ul-Hasan and Shamim Patwary is crucial as they are clean hitters of the ball and must be told about their roles clearly in the side.

On the order hand, Australia, after suffering defeat in the T20I series against West Indies would look to avoid back to back humbling. They must also be aware that if they don’t win this game, they would get into a dire situation of ‘Do or Die’ for the third game, which is never an ideal one. Thus to avoid that situation, victory is the only way out for the Aussie.

The batting order, if need be, must be changed and the likes of Ben McDermott and Dan Christian could be opted for ahead of Moises Henriques and Ashton Turner.

Bangladesh vs Australia: Match Details

Match Number- 02

Date and Time: 04 August, 2021, 05:30 pm IST, 06:00 pm Local, 12:00pm GMT

Venue: Sher-E-Bangla Stadium, Dhaka

Live Stream: Fancode

Pitch Report

As predicted for the first game, the wicket was really low and slow and along with the high humidity and muggy weather, the ball was grouping and slower balls released from the back of the hand by pacers and flights ones by spinners did wonders for both the team. A similar wicket is expected for this game as well.

Weather Forecast

The Dhaka weather this time of the year is unpredictable. There is around a 40% chance of precipitation in Dhaka on August o4 at the time of the match and mostly the sky would remain cloudy, meaning the same muggy weather as was present during the first game.

Team News

Bangladesh

No change is expected in Bangladesh XI as all the players have done exceedingly well in the first game in one department or the other.

Probable XI

Soumya Sarkar, Mohammad Naim, Shakib Al Hasan, Nurul Hasan (wk), Mahmudullah (c), Afif Hossain, Shamim Hossain, Mahedi Hasan, Mustafizur Rahman, Shoriful Islam, Nasum Ahmed

Australia

Since Henriques has failed against spinners in the entire ODI series in West Indies and hasn’t had a good start over here in Bangladesh, Australia could take a chance with Dan Christian and his long levers at the death and his ability to bowl cutters.

Probable XI

Josh Philippe, Alex Carey, Mitchell Marsh, Ashton Turner, Matthew Wade (c & wk), Dan Christian, Ashton Agar, Mitchell Starc, Andrew Tye, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood

Fantasy XI

Mohammad Naim, Josh Philippe, Mitchell Marsh, Shakib Al Hasan, Matthew Wade, Afif Hossain, Shamim Hossain, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc, Mustafizur Rahman, Nasum Ahmed

Captain Shakib Al Hasan

Vice-Captain Mitchell Marsh

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Bangladesh defend their lowest ever score to register their first T20I win over Australia

It was a historic day in Bangladesh cricket history as they defeated Australia for the first time ever in T20Is. The icing on the cake was the fact that they defended their lowest ever total in T20Is to achieve this feat. The Tigers were able to defend 131 as they bowled out Aussies for a meagre 108 in the 20 overs, winning the first of the five T20Is by a huge margin of 23 runs. This is also the first-ever bilateral T20I series taking place between the two nations. Chasing a modest total of 131, Australia got off to the worst possible start as Mahedi Hasanbowled Alex Carey on the very first ball of the innings. From there on the tone was set by the team in Green and Red as they kept chipping away on the Aussie wickets. By the end of the powerplay, the team in yellow were struggling at 28/3, still requiring 104 from 84 balls. But there was still belief as Mitchell Marsh, who has been in a good form was still at the crease along with skipper Matthew Wade. But the run-rate pressure got to Wade and he was caught at short fine leg by Mustafizur Rahman off the bowling off Nasum Ahmed, who went onto pick four wickets in the game and bag Mna of the Match Award as well. With the partners getting out one by one, Marsh couldn’t hold the fort for long either as he was caught by Shorifukl Islam and became Nasuim’s fourth scalp. After that, it was all formalities as Mustafiz knocked Starc’s stumps on the very last ball of the innings to get Australia bowled out in 20 overs. Earlier in the day, after winning the toss, Australia sent Bangladesh in to bat first. On a low and slow track, Shakib Al Hasan batted with caution and scored a 33 ball 36 to take Bangladesh to a position from where they could accelerate. However, he got outright at the beginning of the death overs and it was Afiuf Hossain with his 17 balls 23 that got the Tigers to 131 at the end of 20 overs. For Australia, Hazlewood took three wickets. The two teams would now lock horns once again on Wednesday, August 04 in the second game of the series. Mahmudullah, the Bangladesh skipper was excited about the win, He said that while coming into the field they had decided to give it their all in the field and with the ball to be able to have any chance of defending that total. He wants his players to keep the hunger for wins going. “They are a very good side and we need to tick the boxes we failed today. The hunger needs to be there to win every game for Bangladesh. I am not over the top at the moment, it was a match and it is gone, looking forward to tomorrow's game,” said Mahmudullah at the post-match presentation. Wade on the other hand was disappointed with the team’s batting effort but lauded the bowers for restricting Bangladesh to such a low score. “I thought the bowlers did a terrific job to restrict them to 130. But having lost 3 for 10, I and Marsh tried to resurrect the innings but unfortunately, we couldn't do that,” said Wade.

Dwayne Bravo to retire from T20Is post 2021 World Cup confirms Pollard

West Indian limited-overs skipper Kieron Pollard confirmed that his compatriot and one of the stalwarts of West Indies cricket, Dwayne Bravo is playing his last international match on the home soil, which is also coinciding with Men in Maroon’s last white ball game of the home summer season. The West Indies is taking on Pakistan in the fourth T20I of the four-match series in Providence, Guyana. Speaking after the toss, Pollard thanked the supporters of the team and said, “The last opportunity for the white ball series for us. It has been long and it has been tough. But having said that I would like to take this opportunity to wish one of our stalwarts of the game, he has retired from the other two formats way back, but this is going to be the last game for [Dwayen] Bravo in the Maroon on Caribbean soil.” “You know Chris [Gayle] has been there and thereabout, but he has said that he is going to play till the age of 45. But at the end of the day, we just want to do well for these guys. So special day for us, let’s see what happens,” added the 34-year-old. The 37-year-old Bravo has so far played 85 T20Is for West Indies, picking up 76 wickets and scoring 1229 runs. As far as the match is concerned, having decided to bat first after winning the toss, West Indies put on 30 runs in the first three overs before rain stopped the play. The Windies are trailing 0-1 in the four-match series with two matches washed out.

Madurai Panthers vs Chepauk Super Gillies: When & where to watch match LIVE, Probable XI, Fantasy XI

Madurai Panthers will be up against Chepauk Super Gillies in Chennai on Wednesday (August 4, 2021). Both the sides will be coming into this game on the back of comprehensive wins in their previous respective encounters. While Panthers thumped IDream Tiruppur Tamizhans by 81 runs, Chepauk defeated Dindigul Dragons by 24 runs. Panthers have two wins and as many defeats in the five matches that they have played so far while one game was washed away due to rain. Chepauk on the other hand have played four matches in the competition where they have won two, lost one and ended one without any result as the rain played spoilsport. Panthers would want the batting line up especially, captain Chaturved and Kousik to continue their form. They had put 184/4 in 20 overs against Tiruppur Tamizhans and then bundled them out for 103. Chepauk too would be seeking the batting attack to go all guns blazing. The openers did score some runs for the side but the middle order needs to be among some runs to capitalise on positive starts. Sai Kishore had a brilliant day at the office against Dragons as he scalped a four-wicket haul. Match Details Match: Siechem Madurai Panthers vs Chepauk Super Gillies, 22nd Match TNPL 2021. Date and Time: August 04, 7:30 PM IST Broadcast: TV: Star Sports Network Live Streaming: Disney+Hotstar Pitch Report The track in Chennai is likely to help the bowlers, especially spinners. Apart from that, dew can also play a major role in the later stages of the game, so if you win the toss, bowl first. Probable XI Siechem Madurai Panthers: P Praveen Kumar (wk), Arun Karthik, B Anirudh Sita Ram, NS Chaturved (c), Jagatheesan Kousik, Sugenthiran, K Deeban Lingesh, Aushik Srinivas, R Silambarasan, V Gowtham, B Rocky Chepauk Super Gillies: Kaushik Gandhi (c), N Jagadeesan (wk), S Sujay, Rajagopal Sathish, Uthirasamy Sasidev, Harish Kumar, Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore, Sonu Yadav, Manimaran Siddharth, Jaganath Sinivas, Sandeep Warrier Fantasy XI A. Karthik , N. Jagadeesan, B. Anirudh Sita Ram, N. Sarangarajan Chaturved (C), U. Sasidev, J. Kousik, R. Sathish and S. Harish Kumar, B. Rocky, L. Kiran Akash, R. Sai Kishore (VC)

EXCLUSIVE | Arzan Nagwaswalla had the zeal from very beginning: Childhood coach

The Indian team has been one of those sides that has focused on strengthening the bench strength with every passing series. The evidence of which was pretty visible during the bilateral tie against Sri Lanka where the “other” Indian team led by Shikhar Dhawan clinched the three-match ODI series while managing to complete the T20I fixtures despite Covid-19 scare within the team on the tour. Similarly, the team management and the selectors had earlier picked up Abhimanyu Easwaran, Avesh Khan, Arzan Nagwaswalla and Prasidh Krishna as the standby players for the WTC final and the five-match Test series against England. Unfortunately, Avesh was ruled out of the series after sustaining a fracture in his left thumb during the warm-up match. India have suffered injury concerns for quite some time now. Shubman Gill and Washington Sundar were the other players who were ruled out of the England Tests due to respective injuries while India would also miss the services of Mayank Agarwal in the first Test after he was hit on the helmet during the practice session. The right-hander was subsequently ruled out of the first encounter. Nevertheless, as mentioned above, India have developed a pretty strong bench strength and we hope that the Virat Kohli-led side fetches positive results. Meanwhile, OneCricket had an exclusive chat with Nagwaswalla’s coach Kiran Tandel and the pacer’s coach talked about Arzan’s early days, how he was pretty different from the others and the importance of him being a left-arm bowler. "He was 13-14 when he first came to me. There were some 6-7 boys in the group who used to train together. All of them were pretty good. I just felt Arzan being a left-handed bowler had some advantages and he had the talent also. So, I just thought that if he gets good guidance, he can reach a certain level,” Kiran said. "He had that zeal from the very beginning and used to work really hard. He used to practice in the morning and evening. Whenever he could, he used to come for practice. In fact he used to call me up and ask me if I was free to be there at the practice,” he added. Talking about his bowling, Kiran revealed that the left-hander used to have a bit of problem with his run-up and how he rectified the flaws. "I found a bit of a problem with his run-up so we worked hard on that and focused on that. He used to over-step at times so I told him that if he works on his run-up, it would be really good for him as his bowling action was good." "He started getting recognition in his early days and consistently performed at U16, U19 levels and then got a chance in the Ranji Trophy,” the coach further added. Tandel backed Arzan’s bowling style and said that the conditions in England would suit him and the left-hander can have some advantage. “Dukes ball moves a lot more. One of his friends had a chat with him so Arzan told him that he had a practice session with Rahul, Jadeja and Pujara and the ball is showing some movement,” he said. "Moreover, the conditions there are cool so he will get some advantage. I feel he might make his debut in England. Being a left-arm pacer can give him an advantage." "He is good with the old ball and gets wicket with that so that's another advantage that he has,” he added. The world came to a standstill after there was a Covid-19 outbreak. Talking about the situation, Kiran explained how Arzan used to focus on his training even during the tough times. “We have a beach nearby, so Arzan used to go there and practice everyday. He has been doing a lot of hard work. He used to have a fixed schedule and then we used to have a fielding session whenever we could both with tennis balls and the cricket ball,” Tandel said. Nagwaswalla is probably the second left-handed pacer after Natarajan who has made it to the Indian dressing room in quite some time. When asked about the importance of a left-arm quick bowler, Kiran admitted that a bowler of that genre can bring a lot to the table. "Not having a left-arm pacer is a disadvantage but it also depends upon the opposition,” he concluded. India will begin the Test series against England on Wednesday (August 4, 2021) and this will also mark the beginning of the second cycle of the World Test Championship.