North Sound (Antigua), June 21 (IANS) Australia captain Mitchell Marsh lavished praise on his side’s exciting bowling display after a 28-run win against Bangladesh via DLS method in the T20 World Cup Super Eight match on Friday (as per IST).
Opting to bowl first, Pat Cummins’ hat-trick coupled with Adam Zampa’s two scalps restricted Bangladesh to 140/8 in 20 overs. Captain Najmul Hossain Shanto and Towid Hridoy’s 40 and 41 respectively took the side to a respectable total.
In reply, David Warner’s unbeaten half-century (53*) studded with three sixes and five fours steered them to 100/2 in 11.2 overs before rain affected the encounter. However, Australia were well ahead of the DLS par score to win the match.
“It was an exciting bowling performance with everyone chipping in. This is a very good playing XI, we spoke before the start to have the team to take us deep into the tournament and have a team based on the conditions and it’s going well,” Marsh said in the post-match presentation.
“I’m loving it (on captaincy), great team to lead, great group filled with experience, the support staff have been excellent and the families are here as well. Have another game tomorrow and we’re looking forward to it,” he added.
Cummins was named Player of the Match for bagging a hat-trick in the match. The pacer said he had no idea about the feat until it popped on the big screen.
“I had no idea (on the hat-trick), then saw when it came up on the screen. Set batter in, playing the innings, you never know how it’ll go about, so that was a big wicket (on Hridoy’s wicket) and happy to have restricted them. Few (hat-tricks) in juniors, never for Australia. Agar and Ellis, on the bench, have hat-tricks, joined their club. It’s pretty awesome to tick that off. Good club to be part of,” Cummins said.
“Fairly polished performance, the goal was to win and we did well with the run-rate, we’ll need to continue with the momentum going ahead in the Super 8s,” he added.
Australia will now take on Afghanistan in their second Super Eight match in Kingstown on Sunday.
–IANS
ab/bc
