Starc, Hazlewood crash through top order

Starc began the match with three attempted yorkers aimed at the stumps. Mohammad Naim blocked the first one and inside-edged the second to fine leg for a single. The third angled across the right-handed Liton Das before swinging in late. Das pushed at it with an open face, looking for a single into the covers, and inside-edged into his stumps.

That set the tone for Bangladesh’s top-order collapse, as two more wickets fell to strike-rotating attempts in the next two overs. Soumya Sarkar played on to Hazlewood while looking to steer him to third man, then Mushfiqur Rahim was lbw while looking to work Glenn Maxwell into the leg side. Bangladesh 10 for 3.

The Adam Zampa show

By the time the powerplay ended, Bangladesh had lost another wicket, Hazlewood’s extra bounce cramping Naim into a miscued pull in the sixth over. Thereafter, it was all Zampa.

He struck with his first ball, and the mode of dismissal – a wrong’un floated across the left-handed Afif Hossain and finding his edge – repeated itself two more times with slight differences in the variation out of the hand or the length. Zampa could have had a hat-trick too, had Matthew Wade clung on to another outside edge from a left-hander at the start of the 15th over, but the ball plopped out of his gloves and Taskin Ahmed survived. Not for long, though, as Zampa ended the innings with the fourth and sixth balls of the same over.

Only three Bangladesh batters got into double figures – the opener Naim, the captain Mahmudullah, and Shamim Hossain, who provided the innings its only real moments of spark when he slog-swept Starc and Zampa for a four and a six soon upon arrival.

Finch’s intent leads Australia home

Were Australia looking at their NRR target? The first over answered the question emphatically. Only four runs came off it, but Finch swung and missed at two balls outside off stump, and went hard at a pull that he failed to middle.

The intent would soon find its reward. Sometimes it wasn’t quite off the middle of the bat – a four through extra-cover off Mustafizur Rahman in the second over, a miscued leg-side whip that just cleared a leaping Soumya Sarkar in the third – and sometimes it was – a flicked six off Mustafizur, a lofted drive over extra-cover off Taskin – and the runs simply kept coming. David Warner chipped in as well, with a trio of fours in the fourth over, and Australia were romping home with ease.

Both Finch and Warner were bowled while attempting big slogs, but they’d done their respective jobs by then. Mitchell Marsh, recalled in place of Ashton Agar for this match, finished the job in the seventh over, clattering Taskin for a four over mid-off and swatting a short ball over the midwicket boundary to seal the deal on a near-perfect day for Australia.