Mehedi Hasan Miraz pulled a Riley Meredith short ball, and as it sailed into the sky the tension carried in commentator Shamim Ashraf Chowdhury’s voice from the box at Mirpur’s Sher-e-Bangla. The ball finally landed beyond the boundary — and with that six, Miraz wrote history: for the first time, Bangladesh have won an ODI series against Australia. The six-time ODI World Cup winners — without ICC-event success since their 2023 World Cup win — were playing this series without stars such as Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood. At Mirpur on Thursday, Bangladesh won the second ODI by five wickets under the rain rule to take the historic series, with only a whitewash left to chase; the two sides meet in the third ODI at the Sher-e-Bangla on 14 June.
With the series win over Australia, only England remain. Bangladesh have now won ODI series against all 10 Test-playing nations bar one — India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, West Indies, New Zealand, South Africa, Afghanistan, Ireland and Australia. Rain left Bangladesh a Duckworth-Lewis target of 192 in 41 overs. One change was made to the side: Soumya Sarkar opened in place of Saif Hasan, but his partner Tanjid Hasan Tamim departed before scoring — caught and bowled by Xavier Bartlett off the innings’ second ball. After losing the first wicket for 0, Najmul Hossain Shanto came in, and he and Soumya played Australia’s bowlers fluently, respecting the good ball and putting away the bad to build an 86-run second-wicket stand off 93 balls. Matt Renshaw broke it by removing Soumya — the fault largely his own, going for a reverse sweep off the fifth ball of the 16th over and edging to Bartlett at slip. Shanto soon followed, the left-hander dismissed by Meredith; both Soumya and Shanto made 43, leaving Bangladesh 98 for 3 in 18.1 overs.
In the middle order, Litton Das and Mosaddek Hossain Saikat got set but could not go big — Litton out for 21 to Cameron Green and Saikat for 15 to Adam Zampa, leaving Bangladesh 144 for 5 in 27 overs. Miraz and Towhid Hridoy saw the rest of the way home safely, an unbroken 51-run sixth-wicket stand off 49 balls, Miraz applying the final brushstroke with a six over fine leg.
Earlier, Australia captain Josh Inglis won the toss and batted, only to slump to 0 for 3 in 2 overs — openers Matthew Short and Cooper Connolly and Matt Renshaw all out for ducks. Taskin Ahmed began by bowling Short, while Mostafizur Rahman removed Connolly and Renshaw, both caught behind by Litton Das. Australia threatened to fold between 100 and 150 but did not, held to 187 for 8 in 42 overs; rain at 2:34pm cost two and a half hours’ play. Marnus Labuschagne top-scored with an unbeaten 55 off 85 balls with 3 fours. Mostafiz and Taskin took three wickets each — Mostafiz named man of the match for 3 for 27 in 7 overs, including two maidens — and Tanvir Islam took two.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report