The arch-rivals England had given Australia real hiding in the last game and the magnitude of defeat did only threaten their existence in the tournament based on net run rate, but it would also have caused some dent in confidence.
They had to bounce back quickly with two more games to go and all at stake for them in the competition, and they did it solemnly against Bangladesh and thrashed them by eight wickets with as many as 82 balls remaining to be bowled.
Chasing a small total of 74 runs, Australia looked set to go for the kill and make up for the dent in the net run rate suffered in the last game. Aaron Finch took all Bangladesh bowlers to task, who were anyway helpless in the company of sloppy fielders. David Warner looked in decent touch and played some trademark shots before paying the price of being too greedy.
Mitchell Marsh came and bludgeoned two boundaries and then hit a thumping pull shot for six to seal the deal for the Australians.
The win was magnanimous for them but the stepping stone of that success was laid down in the first innings when Adam Zampa spun a web around the Bangladesh batting lineup that looked muddled and short of inspiration.
But even before that, the pace duo of Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc ripped the heart out of the Bangladesh batting unit by eliminating all of Liton Das, Soumya Sarkar and Mushfiqur Rahim before they could double-digit score. Starc found swing with the new ball to get Liton inside edging onto stumps and Hazlewood tight line and length produced another inside edge on the stumps that sent Soumya Sarkar back to the pavilion.
Mushfiqur Rahim’s dismissal to an innocuous delivery from Glenn Maxwell slumped up his horrendous tournament with the bat and Bangladesh were tottering.
Then, skipper Mahmudullah and Mohammad Naim tried to steady the ship with a flurry of boundaries from both ends but their success was limited as Hazlewood came back to cramp the left-hander of room and Bangladesh lost a crucial wicket just at the worst time possible.
Afifi Hossain was too eager but unsure of Adam Zampa’s trick and in the end edge to Finch at slip to reduce Bangladesh five down for nothing. The next man in —Shamim Hossain fought valiantly and slapped a crisp lofted slog to Starc and slow sweep off Zampa to show his intentions.
However, he was too desperate to score off the leg spinner and Zampa found a bit of extra bounce off to find his edge. He followed with another quicker one to trap Mahedi Hasan LBW to give himself a chance to claim a hat-trick. His captain Finch was may be unaware of what he was up to and offered the ball to Starc and in a way denying him that opportunity straightway.
Starc did the job of wiping out the last major batsman clinically although in a fortunate way when the Bangladesh skipper glanced a leg sides delivery too fine and into the gloves of Matthew Wade.
If Finch’s act of taking the ball away from him was not enough, Wade dropped a fairly easy catch off the bat of Taskin Ahmed and Zampa could offer juts a wry smile in agony. Notwithstanding the frustration of missing a hat-trick, Zampa was aware of the wickets on offer and wiped the Bangladesh tail to pick his maiden five-wicket haul in the international T20s.
Bangladesh were never in the game and it was more a reflection of Australia’s outright dominance and clinical performances first with the ball and then with the bat.
Bangladesh coach Russell Domingo had urged the Bangladesh players to get rid of the fear of failure and obsession of winning so that they could focus on the process, but the result in the next game against Australia has highlighted a flaw in all of his assertions. Bangladesh have been mediocre at best in the tournament and although the level of competition went up several notches in the Super 12, there were enough warning signs in the qualifying round as well.
On the other hand, Australia have come storming on the qualification door to enter the semi-finals and their immediate competitor South Africa have got a task on their hand to treat the clast game against England as a must-win affair.