Bangladesh batsman Rokibul Hassan, who was unbeaten on 51, drives through cover during the third practice match against the Australian Institute of Sports at the Gardens Oval in Darwin yesterday. PHOTO: TIGERCRICKET.COM
Tigers beaten easily
Tigercricket.com, Darwin
The third warm-up match again showed how good a batting track the Gardens Oval has as the Australian Institute of Sports (AIS) chased Bangladesh's 270 with 11 balls and five wickets to spare here yesterday.
The morning, unlike the past few days, was breezy and a tad cloudy. Whatever encouragement the bowlers have on this pitch is usually limited to the first five or six overs and AIS skipper Moises Henriques had no hesitation in putting Bangladesh in on winning the toss.
The Tigers had left out Mehrab Hossain, Shahadat Hossain and Dollar Mahmud from this game and Zunaed Siddiqui opened with Tamim Iqbal. Tamim was the first to go caught behind after going hard at a ball out side off and Zunaed got a leading edge when he tried to flick a full toss and was caught at cover.
Bangladesh were 2/5 inside four overs before Alok Kapali (38), Shakib Al Hasan (67) and Rokibul Hassan (51 not out) ensured a decent total.
The batsmen again all looked good as long as they were at the crease but momentary loss in concentration and some injudicious shot-selection brought about the downfall of captain Mohammad Ashraful (21), Kapali and Shakib. Ashraful skied an attempted pull, Alok went for a wild swing and Shakib, who orchestrated the Bangladesh recovery with a 99-run partnership for the 5th wicket Rokibul danced out against spin and was stumped.
Shakib had swept, cut and used his feet impeccably until his dismissal.
Bangladesh shuffled the batting line in a bid to give the top-order batters more time in the middle. Kapali had gone in at four while Shakib came before Roqibul. Although the run rate was always over impressive four wickets for 41 runs inside the last 10 overs upset the momentum before number ten Forhad Reza's 14-ball 22 gave sheen to the finish.
Rokibul's innings was a study in concentration but he was forced to dig in rather than going for his shots in the closing overs as he ran out of partners.
The target was only going to be challenging if the AIS had lost early wickets. That did not happen as the bowlers could not keep sustained pressure.
Opener Usman Khawaja (94) and Henriques (82), who promoted himself to number three, added 127 and by the time Khawaja was dismissed the AIS already had 206 on the board.
There was however a last ditch fight from the Bangladesh bowlers but AIS always had the wickets in hand. Shakib finished his 10 overs giving away just 34 and took two wickets while Abdur Razzak showed he was getting close to his best with figures of (10-0-38-1).
Mashrafe Bin Mortaza toiled away without luck but was the best among the Tigers paceman.
Bangladesh and AIS meet for the last time on Monday at the same venue.
BRIEF SCORES
BANGLADESH: 270 for 9 in 50 overs (Tamim 2, Zunaed 2, Ashraful 21, Kapali 38, Shakib 67, Rokibul 51, Dhiman 25, Riyad 20, Mashrafe 8, Razzak 0, Forhad 22 not out, extras 14; Henriques 1-44, Sullivan 2-39, Cutting 1-29, Holland 1-38, O'Keefe 2-66, Smith 1-45)
AIS: 271 for 5 in 48.1 overs (Khawaja 94, Davis 25, Henriques 82, Hill 28 not out, Forrest 7, O'Keefe 15, Wade 11 not out, extras 9; Nazmul 1-50, Razzak 1-38, Shakib 2-34)
Result: AIS won by five wickets.