Bangladesh v Australia Second ODI Report Card
Featuring not being national embarrassments, Marnus Labuschagne and quantum entanglement
Not Being National Embarrassments
Grade: C
Australia’s heroic attempts to drag comic cricketing attention away from England’s ongoing shambolism continued in this second ODI. There were momentary celebrations when Matt Short survived the first two deliveries of the match, a feat that had proven beyond the opening batters in recent matches.
But any thoughts of offering Short an Order of Australia for his efforts were blown away a couple of balls later when Short shouldered arms and had his off stump dismantled. Mustafizur Rahman continued the blowing away vibe in the next over, by dismissing Cooper Connolly for a first ball duck, followed by Matt Renshaw to complete a double wicket maiden.
Australia 3/0 after two overs, then, and this series and the previous one in Pakistan were, once again, very much highlighting the Australian batters’ ongoing weakness against the swinging, seaming, spinning, undeviating or full toss ball.
England head honcho (to use his official title) Rob Key has recently been forced into the genuinely astonishing position of having to deny that his team were a ‘national embarrassment’.
None of Australia’s honchos (head or otherwise) have yet been similarly quoted, but we can only assume that it’s because they’re yet to be made aware this series is taking place.
Marnus Labuschagne
Grade: C+
Having dispensed with the notion of opening batters in cricket, Australia did mount some kind of fightback from that point. Marnus Labuschagne, based on recent form, could not be trusted to face the new ball at his usual position of number three. He instead faced the new ball from seven and, in a sign of precisely how bad Australia’s batting has become, proceeded to top score for the innings, with a disappointingly sane knock of 55* (85).
