Bangladesh had a mountain that was too steep to climb ahead of them, but they gave it their best shot and made it difficult for the Aussies to win. Once the five-time champions enrolled that herculean total onboard batting first, they always had the upper hand and they stayed far away from their target despite some wonderful batting attempt from the Tigers.
Australian openers like always did well and gave an amazing start. Aaron Finch went brutal as usual playing the second fiddle with David Warner but with a much superior strike rate this time. They added 121 runs for the first wicket, laying a strong basis for their wonderful middle order to come in and take over. Just after finishing his fifty, Finch got dismissed.
In this tournament, Usman Khawaja was short of runs and was permitted to bat at number three ahead of Steve Smith. He looked in excellent touch and the onslaught of Warner added to his touch of brilliance. The duo took full control of the middle overs and Warner completed his second century of this tournament.
The opener continued his pyrotechnics and broke some records as well. He became the first cricketer to register two 150 + scores in the history of the World Cup and is also the first in ODIs to win a 150 + score against six different opponents. He had an opportunity to get a double ton, but he was dismissed by Soumya Sarkar on 166. Usman Khawaja then missed out by 11 runs on a well-deserved hundred.
Glenn Maxwell, who was sent out for a blast, performed a late cameo that helped Australia in scoring 381 runs. Sarkar came off as a real deal, picking up three enormous Warner, Finch and Khawaja wickets.
With Soumya Sarkar running out in disastrous conditions, Bangladesh got off to a terrible beginning in their run chase. The in-form Shakib Al Hasan and Tamim Iqbal stitched a wonderful partnership in order to keep things going even though they were not exactly parallel to the required rate. They added 79 runs for the second wicket before Marcus Stoinis deceived Shakib with a slower ball which struck directly into the fielder’s hands.
In the final 25 overs, Mahmudullah and Mushfiqur had an enormous job ahead of them. Aaron Finch was clever enough to keep these batsmen from gaining momentum and in the middle overs made his strike bowlers Starc and Cummins bowl. Mahmudullah got along with Mushfiqur after a while and it felt like they could get near to the target for a time with both batsmen finishing their fifties and adding 127 runs for the fifth wicket.
Killing all the hopes, Mahmudullah got out for a wonderful 69 runs in the 46th over. After that, the momentum was dead in their innings and apart from Mushfiqur getting to a hundred, in the final four overs, the supporters of the Tigers had very little to cheer about.
