Bangladesh and Australia battle to avoid wooden spoon

HOSTS BANGLADESH and pre-tournament favourites Australia will complete their ICC World Twenty20 campaign with a wooden-spoon whimper in Dhaka.One team can at least break their duck in Group 2 at the Sher-e-Bangla Stadium. But for Bangladesh, in front of their partisan and frantic home support, and Australia, at the end of an otherwise all-conquering 2013-14, this is a significant anti-climax.
Bangladesh will be without long-serving seamer Mashrafe Mortaza, who has battled on with knee trouble through the tournament but will not be asked to do so one last time.
The hosts did at least top their qualifying group, despite the embarrassment of a two-wicket defeat against Hong Kong in Chittagong.
But after their latest setback at the hands of Pakistan in Dhaka on Sunday confirmed also-ran status, Bangladesh badly need a consolation victory over high-profile opponents to restore some self-belief.
Australia, meanwhile, may still be in shock following their 73-run trouncing against unbeaten India. They went into that match with semi-final hopes already spent after previous defeats against Pakistan and then West Indies.
But it was alarming to see them falter to 86 all out in 16.2 overs, having been set only a par target.
Captain George Bailey, who described the defeat as the most disappointing of his three-year Twenty20 tenure, also led Australia to an early exit – in the absence of the injured Michael Clarke – from last summer’s ICC Champions Trophy in England.