Analytical review of the first ODI between Bangladesh and Australia held in Darwin on August 30, 2008.

Australia bulldozed Bangladesh by 180 runs in the first ODI held in Darwin. Although the victory does not come as a surprise it vindicates the fact that Australia retain its killer instinct, minus its senior most players and preparation. It was a face-off with a pretty predictable result. You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to guess which way an Australia against Bangladesh match will go. However, the build-up to the first match gave hints that an upset could be likely.

Bangladesh team had been in town for 2 weeks and had already played five warm-up matches. Australian team on the other hand got only one practice match before coming into play. The biggies were out of the game due to various reasons. The absence of Ricky Ponting (wrist injury), Matthew Hayden (heel injury) and Brett Lee (personal reasons) came as a breather to the Bangladesh team who were already burdened with the pressure of facing a team they have beaten only once in 13 occasions. A series victory is a far-fetched dream for the Asian minnows but considering the total situation preceding the match, the possibility of an upset must have crossed their minds. But then Australia isn’t world champion for nothing!

The match saw Andrew Symonds sitting out of the game as a disciplinary action. Symonds preferred fishing over attending a team meeting and the management preferred to give him a piece of mind regardless of the experience crunch Australia faced for this match. The scenario became similar to the 2005 Cardiff match, where Symonds was shown the red card in midst of a match when he was found under influence of alcohol and Bangladesh pocketed an upset victory. However, the Australians showed no signs of repeating the mistake and absolutely no mercy on the visitors.

 With 254 on the board and a few overs into Bangladeshi batting, the outcome of the match became evident. Slow and steady half-centuries by Shaun Marsh and Michael Hussey took the team to an otherwise-ok total after the reshuffled and deficient top order went off-track. The otherwise-ok total spelt doom for Bangladesh which becomes clear by the fact that the longest partnership their innings had was a 16-run stand.

We don’t expect Bangladesh to give stiff competition to Australia every time they come to contest. But a decent stand-up is the least the spectators deserve.

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3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."

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