Bangladesh seal first-ever series win against Australia

It took a lot of effort from the BCB to bring Australia and play a bilateral series during this Covid pandemic. But it was absolutely worth it.

Bangladesh won the third T20I by 10 runs and sealed their first-ever bilateral series against mighty Australia. 

Bangladesh are 3-0 up in the 5-match T20I series.

Batting first Bangladesh scored 127/9 from their 20 overs. Nathan Ellis became the first-ever cricketer to bag a hattrick on T20I debut. 

Rest of the job was done by the bowlers who did brilliantly to restrict Australia to 117/4.

Australia needed 22 runs to win from the last over but Mahedi defended.

Shoriful bagged a brace but Mustafiz's 4-over spell was absolutely game-changing. 

Both the teams will face each other tomorrow again. 

Meanwhile, President Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina have congratulated the players, coaches and managers of the Bangladesh Cricket Team for ensuring their victory in the T20 series against Australia with two matches left.

10:38 pm

Australia need 23 from the last 2 overs. 

Mustafiz's over will be crucial. 

This will be Bangladesh's first-ever bilateral series victory over Australia.

10:30 pm

Tigers are back in the hunt in no time as they send two Australian batsmen back to the pavilion. 

First, it was Shakib who bowled McDermott and now Shoriful dismissed Moises Henriques in the very next over. 

Tigers are the clear favourites to seal the series at this moment.

Australia still need 34 runs from 18 balls.

10:07 pm

Ben McDermott and Mitchell Marsh were fighting hard to keep Australia alive in the 5-match T20I series but Shakib broke the 63-run partnership.

They have taken the visitors out of danger and will now be looking to hurt Bangladesh. 

Shoriful missed the catch of McDermott at fine-leg to rub salt in the wound. 

The match is now hung in balance and anything can happen from here on. 

Australia still need 57 runs in 40 balls having 8 wickets in hand.

9:33 pm

Nasum Ahmed's magical 2-1-1-1 spell has kept Bangladesh right on track in defending 127 runs. 

Nasum sent back Aussie skipper Wade for 1 and Australia are clearly struggling. 

After 6 overs, the visitors are 20 for 1. They still need 108 runs to win from 14 overs. Required rate is climbing up to 8.

9:04 pm

Nathan Ellis became the first cricketer in history to bag a hattrick on T20I debut. 

Ellis wasn't exactly having a great day at the office, but he got rid of Mahmudullah, Mustafizur and Mahedi off the last three balls of the innings to claim a hat-trick.

Photo: Salahuddin Ahmed/TBS

It was a solid bowling and fielding display by Australia throughout.

 Australia were actually off to a great start with Naim and Sarkar falling early off successive balls.

Mahmudullah walked in and anchored. Shakib was livid to walk off after a good start.

The impressive Afif was run out brilliantly by Carey and Moises came with another stunning direct-hit to get rid of Nurul.

Mahmudullah then changed gears and got to his 5th T20I fifty before Ellis stole the show.

Josh Hazlewood and Adam Zampa also did excellent with the ball.

7:58 pm

Shakib departed after scoring 27 off 17 balls. 

Zampa picked up his second wicket. 

Bangladesh are struggling and youngsters will have to take responsibility from here on. 

Afif joins skipper Mahmudullah who is unbeaten on 17.

7:29 pm

Bangladesh lose both the openers inside three overs with only 3 runs on the board. 

Soumya was struggling ever since the first ball he faced and his misery eventually came to an end when he was trapped LBW to Zampa. 

His partner, Naim, departed earlier being caught behind off Hazlewood. 

Shakib and Mahmudullah are now in the middle.

7:11 pm

Mahmudullah Riyad finally won the toss and elected to bat first in the rain-affected third T20I. 

Despite losing an hour, it will be a full 20-over game. 

Bangladesh made no changes to their playing eleven while the visitors made three changes. 

Nathan Ellis makes his T20I debut for Australia. 

Bangladesh (Playing XI): Mohammad Naim, Soumya Sarkar, Shakib Al Hasan, Mahedi Hasan, Mahmudullah(c), Afif Hossain, Nurul Hasan(w), Shamim Hossain, Mustafizur Rahman, Shoriful Islam, Nasum Ahmed

Australia (Playing XI): Matthew Wade(w/c), Ben McDermott, Mitchell Marsh, Moises Henriques, Alex Carey, Ashton Turner, Daniel Christian, Ashton Agar, Nathan Ellis, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood

5:59 pm

Toss has been delayed at SBNCS for the third T20I between Bangladesh and Australia.

It stopped raining for a while but started pouring down again.

No real urgency from the groundsmen as of now. But it was bucketing down an hour back.

The mopping up is underway and a few players are on the outfield. Still pretty cloudy around the stadium. 

However, the drainage system has been fantastic.

One hour can be added and hence we might still expect a full game.

The players are warming up. No start time has been announced yet.

Bangladesh are 2-0 up in the 5-match T20I series.