Bangladesh 195 for 5 (Soumya 42, Shanto 42, Hridoy 40*) beat Australia 187 for 8 (Labuschagne 55*, Bartlett 52, Mustafizur 3-27, Taskin 3-33) by five wickets
Bangladesh secured their first ODI series victory against Australia after they won the second ODI by five wickets in Dhaka, chasing down a rain-adjusted target of 192 after earlier removing the visitors' first three wickets before they had scored a run.
Australia reached 187 for 8 in 42 overs when rain came, but had done well to reach that far after an extraordinary start when they became just the fourth team in ODI history to be 0 for 3. Taskin Ahmed and Mustafizur Rahman did the early damage and finished with three wickets each. Australia hung on through fifties from Marnus Labuschagne and Xavier Bartlett who rescued them with a 103-run seventh-wicket stand.
Buoyed by his maiden half-century, Bartlett bowled an inspired first over when play resumed at 5.15pm. A big appeal off the first ball was followed by Tanzid Hasan giving a simple return catch. Bartlett then dropped Najmul Hossain Shanto off the fifth ball, although it was a tough chance, before the umpire raised the finger to an lbw appeal on the last ball but Shanto's review saved him with the ball missing leg stump.
The recalled Soumya Sarkar got Bangladesh going with a lofted cover drive in the third over. He repeated the dose against Nathan Ellis in the next over then Shanto took consecutive boundaries off Bartlett in the fifth over.
Three more boundaries followed in as many overs, including Soumya hoisting Ellis over square leg for a six. Shanto survived a half chance when he was on 21, when Labuschagne dropped a tough opportunity at short midwicket. Soumya then went after Adam Zampa, climbing into a high six over long-on.
It was the part-timer Matt Renshaw who got Australia the much-needed breakthrough in the 16th over. Soumya's reverse paddle was poorly executed and he gave Bartlett a simple catch at slip. Shanto followed soon after, caught behind off Riley Meredith, who was returning to the ODI side after five years.
Cameron Green made a further blow when he removed Litton Das with a snorter that took the batter's glove after a brisk 21. Mosaddek Hossain, Bangladesh's batting hero from the first game, played his shots from the start before giving Cooper Connolly a simple catch at long-off.
At 144 for 5, with a only the bowlers to come, the game was not quite closed out. However, captain Mehidy Hasan Miraz withstood a blow to the side of the head to help Towhid Hridoy in the remaining part of the chase. The game ended up finishing in a rush as Hridoy hooked Meredith for a six followed by a pulled boundary then Mehidy sealed victory with another hook that cleared the boundary.
The opening exchanges of the match were remarkable. Taskin set off one of the most extraordinary starts seen in Bangladesh when he clean bowled Matthew Short for the second consecutive innings, this time the batter leaving the ball from a good length. Short had fallen for a duck three innings in a row, starting from the third ODI against Pakistan in Lahore.
Connolly followed Short in the next over when he fell first ball to Mustafizur. The delivery was going slightly away from the left-handed Connolly who provided the thin edge. Renshaw fell in a similar way at the end of the same over, and Australia hadn't opened their scoring.
They were reduced to 25 for 4 in the eighth over when Mustafizur got Alex Carey to drive one uppishly at point, where Shanto took the simple catch. Mustafizur picked up three wickets in the powerplay for only the second time in his ODI career.
Captain Josh Inglis tried to salvage the situation, striking five boundaries including a beautiful square-cut six off the Nahid Rana. He timed the ball well during his 34 but left-arm spinner Tanvir Islam neutralised his threat when Inglis' miscued inside-out shot found deep cover. Tanvir wasn't done, removing Green with a caught-and-bowled dismissal in the 22nd over.
Australia's resistance came in the form of a seventh-wicket stand between Labuschagne and Bartlett. Labuschagne, who had been moved down to. No. 7 and should have been run out on 1, struck three fours in his unbeaten 55 off 85 balls. It was just his second ODI fifty since the 2023 World Cup final.
Bartlett, who walked in at 81 for 6, was the aggressor and struck six boundaries including two huge sixes over midwicket in his 52 off 48 balls.
Taskin broke the partnership in the 41st over, cleaning up Bartlett with an in-ducker. Next ball he bowled a big off-cutter to fox Zampa. They were important blows because it meant the DLS target was more in Bangladesh's favour after a two-and-a-half hour delay.
