Bowlers, Marsh help Australia complete T20I series sweep over Bangladesh

Australia produced a dominant bowling performance to complete a series sweep of Bangladesh in the T20I series. Spencer Johnson led the way with figures of 2 for 6 while Nathan Ellis and Adam Zampa also returned a brace each, keeping the hosts to 109 for 8. The visitors chased that total down at a canter with Mitchell Marsh smashing a 28-ball 60, helping the visitors achieve something of a payback on the tour after dropping the ODI series.

The second T20I in Chattogram had seen Bangladesh come close to within seven runs of Australia's total of 196. Given that this game was played on the same pitch, Towhid Hridoy opted to bat. As it turned out, his teammates struggled to come to grips with a surface that played slow, especially with Australia's bowlers hitting their marks.

The slide began in portentous fashion when Tanzid Hasan Tamim was run-out at the non-striker's end when Johnson managed to get a hand on a drive from Saif Hassan before the ball rolled on to hit the stumps. Saif fell three balls later, looking to hit the left-armer off a good length only to spoon a simple catch to mid-off.

Parvez Hossain Emon struggled to get going before hitting a Nathan Ellis full toss straight to mid-wicket for a 13-ball 1. Nurul Hasan ended a 25-ball drought without a boundary in the sixth over and Hridoy found one more boundary four balls later, but that 11-run over only managed to take Bangladesh's Powerplay total to 22 for 3.

The struggles continued through the middle overs where Adam Zampa began with a maiden-wicket, accounting for Nurul Hasan with a skidder. When Johnson returned to knock over Shamim Hossain in the next over, Bangladesh were down in the dumps at 37 for 5.

Captain Hridoy led a counter-attack alongside Rishad Hossain and continued to kick on even when the latter fell for 16. Hridoy completed a 41-ball half-century, his seventh in T20I cricket in the 19th over and marked it with a thumping six off Ellis a few balls later. His attempts to add heft to the total in the final over by farming the strike yielded no rewards as only two runs came off it after four dots, leaving Bangladesh with a measly total of 109. Hridoy finished unbeaten on 61.

The rest of the game was but a formality once Mitchell Marsh raced away to 36 off the 19 balls he faced in the Powerplay. The Australian captain tore into Taskin Ahmed, hitting a six in the third over and then four boundaries in Taskin's next. Australia, who reached 54 for the loss of Josh Inglis in the first six overs, continued to motor to the finish line, plundering 20 off Nahid Rana's first over. Marsh hit the speedster for a six and a four before Cooper Connolly found a pair of boundaries.

Marsh completed a 23-ball half-century with a slog-swept six off Rishad Hossain. He hit a fourth maximum – a lofted drive over extra cover off Shoriful Islam in the next over – before falling to the next ball. Australia also lost Connolly before Tim David hit two sixes to seal the sweep with 54 balls to spare.

Brief scores: Bangladesh 109/8 in 20 overs (Towhid Hridoy 61*; Spencer Johnson 2-6, Nathan Ellis 2-21) lost to Australia 112/3 in 11 overs (Mitchell Marsh 60; Nasum Ahmed 1-10) by seven wickets