A hat-trick from Pat Cummins and a breezy, unbeaten fifty from David Warner helped Australia make a winning start to Super 8 as they made light work of Bangladesh in a rain-hit encounter at North Sound. Bangladesh huffed and puffed their way to 140/8 before Australia raced towards it with ease. The game didn’t witness a proper conclusion as a result of rain but Australia had enough in the tank by then to get the two points by DLS method.

The intent in the powerplay made the difference. Bangladesh struggled, at least for the first half of their powerplay, scoring only 8 runs before eventually dragging that score to 39. However, Australia effortlessly managed to set up the chase with their belligerent hitting, taking full toll of the fielding restrictions to knock off 59 runs without losing a wicket.

It took Mitchell Starc just three deliveries to strike as Tanzim Hasan inside-edged one onto his stumps. Josh Hazlewood followed it up with a maiden over as Bangladesh made just 8 in the opening three overs. Desperate to get out of this rut, Najmul Shanto stepped down the track against Hazlewood to hammer him for a six before Litton Das hit a couple of boundaries off Starc. Bangladesh managed 31 off the last three powerplay overs but there was still a lot of work to be done.

While Shanto attempted to show some intent again immediately after the end of the powerplay with boundaries off Adam Zampa and Marcus Stoinis, Australia regained control. Litton missed a sweep against Zampa and got bowled whereas Glenn Maxwell struck in his very first over, getting rid of Rishad Hossain. The spinners tied down Bangladesh in the middle phase, not allowing the batters to break free. The pressure resulted in the key wicket of Shanto as well.

Bangladesh definitely needed at least 60 runs from their final five overs in order to pose a challenge for Australia. They had a well-set Towhid Hridoy and the veteran Shakib Al Hasan to take charge at the death. Even though Shakib was dismissed by Stoinis, Hridoy gave his side some hope after smashing Stoinis for successive sixes. But an anti-climax was in store as Cummins came in, varied his pace to good effect and ended up picking two wickets off consecutive deliveries to peg Bangladesh back further. Taskin Ahmed managed to eke out some precious runs in the penultimate over but the onus was on Hridoy to give his side a big finish. Cummins, who was on a hat-trick having picked those two wickets off the final two deliveries of his previous over, bowled a slower one as Hridoy couldn’t time a scoop properly and ended up finding the fielder. It was only the second instance of an Australian bowler picking up a hat-trick in a T20 World Cup. The previous one was by Brett Lee in the inaugural edition against the same opposition. Hridoy’s wicket was a massive blow for the men in green as they ended up with a below par total.

Australia were always going to come hard no matter what the target was. Travis Head and David Warner hit a boundary each in the opening two overs before the latter slog swept Mahedi Hasan for a six. Taskin was taken apart for 15 in his first over and even a good over from Mustafizur Rahman was ruined with Head finishing it off with a four and a six. Warner rounded off the powerplay with a six as Australia took full control.

Two balls after the powerplay, the players were forced off the field due to rain. Australia were well ahead of the chase at that point but thankfully the rain didn’t last long. Bangladesh were given a ray of hope post resumption as Rishad struck in back-to-back overs to pick the big wickets of Head and Mitchell Marsh. However, those hopes were quashed immediately by Warner and Maxwell. The duo collected a boundary each off Mustafizur before taking on Rishad for a four and a six. Warner then whipped one past midwicket for another six to bring up his fifty and with that, the rain arrived again – this time finishing the game early for good.

Bangladesh have little time to recover as they take on India next at the same venue on Saturday. Australia will move to St. Vincent to face Afghanistan.