Australia finish Bangladesh tour with record low score

Australia met their international obligations but achieved little else on a Twenty20 tour of Bangladesh after being bowled out for a record low score to lose the series 4-1 in Dhaka.

Dismissed for just 62 in slow and unpredictable turning conditions, Australia lost the fifth and final match by 60 runs on Tuesday morning (AEST). Australia’s previous lowest T20 international score was 79 against England on the 2005 tour.

Acting captain Matthew Wade made his top score of the tournament with 22.Credit:AP

The latest result followed a 4-1 T20 series loss to the West Indies and, with a second string batting line-up, proved wholly inadequate preparation for the T20 World Cup in the UAE from mid-October.

With the exception of Mitchell Marsh, the batsmen who benefited most were those who stayed at home.

The record will forever show the superiority of Bangladesh in their conditions and highlighted once again Australia’s inadequacy against the turning ball.

But the prize is the T20 World Cup, the only trophy Australia has never won, and the conditions were so foreign, a week-long training camp in Dubai would have been of more value.

However, Australia has such a poor reputation internationally for being an elitist and timid tourist, especially after pulling out of the South African tour at short notice earlier this year, that reputational damage is front and centre with Cricket Australia.

Veteran journeyman Dan Christian estimates that in Sharjah 220 was a winning score, while in Dubai and Abu Dhabi they were 170 to 180.

This was the lowest-scoring T20 series of three matches or more in history and the only one where the scoring rate was below six an over. The highest score in the tournament was Bangladesh’s 7/131 and for Australia 7/121.

While it was intriguing cricket at times given the difficulty of the conditions, it was completely anathema to the reason T20 cricket was designed; high-scoring to attract new fans to the game. But then, in these COVID times, every match was played without a crowd.

Acting captain Matthew Wade, who top-scored for Australia and made his top score of the tournament with 22 from 22 balls including two sixes, refused to use the conditions as an excuse.

“There are not a lot of positives to take out of it (the series) to get beaten in the fashion we did,” Wade said. “Especially tonight was not good enough from an Australian cricket team.

“The biggest positive was the way our spinners bowled on these wickets.”

Wade claimed the young batsmen in the squad would benefit from experiencing such conditions, but almost none of them made any runs. Only four players, including resting opening bowler Mitchell Starc and 38-year-old Christian, averaged double figures.

“I’ve played a lot of cricket at international level and these are the most challenging international pitches I’ve ever played on,” Wade said.

Australia selected three front-line spinners – Ashton Agar, Adam Zampa and fellow leg-spinner Mitchell Swepson – but in reality used six spinners.

Ashton Turner’s part-time off-spin was again used to open the bowling and the two seamers, Christian and Nathan Ellis playing his second game after a hat-trick debut, used 93 percent slower balls, according to broadcast statistics.

The fast off-breaks in particular gripped in the surface and turned as Ellis (2-16) and Christian (2-17) pulled Bangladesh back after the home side charged to 0-33 from the opening three overs delivered by three different spinners.

Christian’s bowling may have taken him an unlikely step closer to the T20 World Cup squad after his remarkable five sixes in one over during the previous match set up Australia’s only victory.

However, he was unable to repeat those heroics opening the batting, bowled for three trying to swat an arm ball out of the ground.

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