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 having earlier removed 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 becoming 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. 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 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 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. It meant Short had fallen for a duck three innings in a row, starting from the third ODI against Pakistan in Lahore.

Connolly followed 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.

Brief scores:
Bangladesh 195 for 5 (Soumya Sarkar  42, Najmul Hosain Shanto 42, Towhid Hridoy 40*; Cameron Green 1-09) beat Australia 187 for 8 in 42 overs (Marnus Labuschagne 55*, Xavier Bartlett 52; Mustafizur Rahman  3-27, Taskin Ahmed 3-33, Tanvir Islam 2-45) by five wickets [DLS method]

[Cricinfo]

Sri Lanka’s women’s cricket team has been spending time in Birmingham, Britain’s second-largest city and will take on England in today’s opening encounter of the Women’s T20 World Cup. However, bad weather could spoil any chances of play. The whole of this week has been wet in Birmingham, often making you wonder whether this is really the English summer.

If there is a washout, Sri Lanka will not complain too much. They would gladly pinch a point off England, one of the pre-tournament favourites. Head-to-head, the teams have met on 12 occasions, with England winning ten and Sri Lanka just two.

England are ranked second in the world while Sri Lanka have made steady progress in recent years and are now sixth, ahead of both West Indies and Pakistan.

With the toughest opponent out of the way, Sri Lanka will fancy their chances of making the semi-finals. In global tournaments, teams have gone on to accomplish remarkable things thanks to a bit of luck. Wonder how? Ask Imran Khan. His famed ‘Cornered Tigers’ had no hope and were facing elimination in the 1992 World Cup when they were bowled out for 74 by Ian Botham in Adelaide. England were cruising in the chase when the heavens opened and the game was abandoned, with both sides sharing a point each. That single point eventually helped Pakistan edge out Australia for a place in the semi-finals and as they say, the rest is history.

Edgbaston is a leafy suburb of Birmingham, a short ten-minute bus ride from the city centre. It is also the youngest of England’s six leading Test venues, but it has witnessed some of the game’s most iconic moments.

It was here that Brian Lara was dropped on 18 by the Durham wicketkeeper, who famously told the slip cordon, “I hope he doesn’t make a hundred today.” Well, Lara went on to make a world-record 501 not out for Warwickshire in 1994, still the highest score in first-class cricket.

This was also the venue for the epic 1999 World Cup semi-final between South Africa and Australia, when the match ended in a tie and the Proteas, yet again, found a way to suffer heartbreak on the biggest stage.

Apart from Lara, many leading cricketers have represented Warwickshire over the years, including Alvin Kallicharran, Rohan Kanhai, Lance Gibbs, Allan Donald and our own Kumar Sangakkara.

The ground also houses the famous Thwaite Memorial Scoreboard, a masterpiece in this digital age where giant electronic screens have become the norm.

Warwickshire County Cricket Club, like Old Trafford and the Rose Bowl, has leased out a portion of the ground for a hotel project, ensuring that finances remain on the right side of the ledger. There is something special about watching cricket from your hotel balcony and fans are willing to pay handsome sums for the privilege.

Rex Clementine in Birmingham

Rumesh Tharanga has overtaken former world and Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra to improve his world ranking to third, a position no Sri Lankan has ever held since the introduction of the ranking system by World Athletics, the sport’s governing body.

According to the latest rankings published by World Athletics late on Wednesday, Tharanga is ranked third with a ranking score of 1,324.

‎The 23-year-old’s massive throw of 92.62 metres at the Golden Gala Pietro Mennea in Rome last week not only secured victory against a world-class field but also propelled him from fifth place to third in the global rankings. Tharanga has firmly established himself among the elite athletes in the discipline and now sits behind only Germany’s Julian Weber and Grenada’s Anderson Peters, who has just two ranking points more than the Sri Lankan.

‎The remarkable throw helped him overtake international stars, including former world champion Chopra of India and Trinidad and Tobago’s Keshorn Walcott, underlining his rapid rise in the sport.

‎Tharanga’s ascent has been one of the most impressive stories in world athletics this season. Just a month ago, he was ranked seventh after a series of strong performances. He produced a huge national-record throw of 89.37m at Diyagama in March before winning the Kip Keino Classic at the Nyayo National Stadium in Nairobi with a throw of 89.28m in April. He then made a memorable Diamond League debut in Rabat in late May, where he finished second with a throw of 85.97m.

His Rome effort elevated him to eighth on the all-time world list and made him the second-best Asian javelin thrower in history, trailing only Pakistan’s Olympic champion Arshad Nadeem. The throw also surpassed the personal bests of both Chopra and Chinese Taipei’s Cheng Chao-tsun, further enhancing his standing on the global stage.

‎With the World Athletics Championships, Commonwealth Games, and Asian Games on the horizon, Tharanga has firmly established himself as a genuine medal contender. His rise from a national prospect to World No. 3 within a single season marks a watershed moment for Sri Lankan athletics and signals the arrival of a new force in international javelin throwing.

by Reemus Fernando