Watch: Alex Carey takes a catch, dives over rope and concedes six; Afif Hossain capitalises and wins game for Bangladesh

Australia’s horrid run in T20I cricket has extended. After going through 2019 unbeaten in the shortest format, the Aussies have won a mere seven out of the 21 T20Is they have played since the start of January 2020. In their most recent series against West Indies, they lost 1-4 before they have lost two successive […]
 
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Watch: Alex Carey takes a catch, dives over rope and concedes six; Afif Hossain capitalises and wins game for Bangladesh

Australia’s horrid run in T20I cricket has extended. After going through 2019 unbeaten in the shortest format, the Aussies have won a mere seven out of the 21 T20Is they have played since the start of January 2020. In their most recent series against West Indies, they lost 1-4 before they have lost two successive games against Bangladesh.

In the first T20I, Australia couldn’t chase 132 and lost by 23 runs. Their batting continued to disappoint in the second game as they could muster just 121/7 in their 20 overs. However, the bowlers fought back well and kept the Aussies in the hunt.

At 67/5 in the 12th over chasing 122, Bangladesh were in trouble and Australia would’ve fancied their chances with an inexperienced Bangladesh middle and lower middle-order. However, it was Afif Hossain who combined with wicket-keeper Nurul Hasan to take Bangladesh over the line with eight balls to spare.

Alex Carey and a costly reprieve

There was one moment which turned out to be a match-defining and match-turning one. Afif Hossain was batting on 9 off 11 deliveries in the 13th over. The left-hander whipped a delivery from Andrew Tye into the leg-side on the last ball of that over. While the timing was good, it didn’t really go the distance.

The fielder on the deep square leg boundary Alex Carey, who seemed to be a few yards inside the boundary rope ran across and back before taking the catch. However, the slide took him over the boundary. Carey couldn’t get rid of the ball on time and he ended up conceding six runs.

Watch: Alex Carey takes a catch, dives over rope and concedes six; Afif Hossain capitalises and wins game for Bangladesh

The video for the same is embedded below (Video Credits – Fancode):

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It was a huge moment in the game. Hossain made full use of the life he received as he scored 37 off 31 balls which included five fours apart from that six and remained unbeaten to help Bangladesh earn a 2-0 lead in this five-match T20I series. Nurul Hasan also chipped in with an unbeaten 22 as the duo shared an unbeaten 66-run stand for the sixth wicket.

This is the first time in the history of the game that Bangladesh have recorded successive wins over Australia in international cricket. In fact, their first T20I win over the Aussies came in the first T20I and this becomes the second. They now have the chance of registering their first-ever bilateral series win over Australia. Note, this is the first-ever bilateral T20I series between Bangladesh and Australia.

Australia may not be at full strength and are missing most of their key players but they will be desperate to turn things around with the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup only a little more than a couple of months away. They will want to build some sort of momentum as this is their last T20I assignment before the mega event.