Bangladesh v Australia Third ODI Report Card
Featuring Socceroos, degrees of filth, not hitting sixes and mad finishes
Socceroos
Grade: B+
The third ODI in this series unfortunately coincided with Australia’s football World Cup match against Turkey, with the first ball scheduled to be bowled as the second half kicked off.
Disappointing, obviously, for the Socceroos that all of Australia therefore abandoned them and their 1-0 halftime lead for this dead rubber. Still, we wished them luck in our absence. Kick well, lads!
Ha ha ha! No, of course not. This isn’t 1989. We can double screen these things. Hell, we can even put the soccer on the TV and relegate a stream of the cricket to the laptop.
We can cast one eye to the laptop as Professor Xavier Bartlett clinically bowls Soumya Sarkar for just 2 (4), proving that neither side was capable in this series of surviving the match’s first over.
And then, as Bangladesh rebuilt their innings, we could return our attention to the soccer, and enjoy the work of Australia’s beautiful giant wall boys hurling themselves in front of every shot made by the hapless Turkey players, growing increasingly infuriated by this blockade of yellow-shirted flesh between them and the goal.
Funny, isn’t it, how I don’t think of Harry Souttar for four years, then upon being reintroduced to him, immediately fall back in love with this magnificent tower of defending cool-headedness. Australia defeat Turkey 2-0.
A good win by the Socceroos, yes, but important to note that as the final whistle blew, Matt Renshaw had also just taken a key wicket.
Degrees of Filth
Grade: A-
And not just one wicket, but two, as Renshaw proved himself to be Australia’s most dangerous bowler. How dangerous? Dangerous enough that it encouraged captain Josh Inglis to indulge in Marnus Labuschagne Filth™. To be more precise, the leg spinning filth, rather than the filthier medium pace filth.
Regardless of the degrees of filth being thrown at them, Bangladesh continued to strike clean boundaries. Yes, they might have slowed down a little at the end as the heat and humidity took its half-BBL-endorsed toll (The Melbourne Humidity to be the new name of whatever unholy Big Bash hybrid Cricket Victoria inflicts upon its disgruntled fans? You’re hearing it more and more.)
