Bangladesh lose to Australia despite their highest ODI total in high-scoring WC match

Mushfiqur Rahim blasted Bangladesh to their highest ODI total of 333 for eight with his maiden World Cup century but it was not enough to prevent a 48-run defeat to holders Australia in their high-scoring clash on Thursday.

The never-say-die attitude of the Tigers batsmen kept the Australians wary during the valiant chase at Trent Bridge in the game that saw 714 runs scored in total - the most ever in a World Cup.

Australia have all but sealed their semi-finals spot after opener David Warner fired them to a weighty 381-5 with a magnificent 166, which is now a tournament best.

Bangladesh suffered an early blow in their chase when a mix-up between the two openers saw Soumya Sarkar get run out by a direct hit from Aaron Finch.

Tamim Iqbal was then joined by Shakib al Hasan. Roared on by the boisterous supporters, they went along nicely in a decent partnership until Shakib fell for 41 with a leading edge off Marcus Stoinis with the score at 102.

Tamim (62) then fashioned a promising 42-run partnership with Mushfiqur (102) but the opener played a short ball from Mitchell Starc onto his stumps to lose his wicket in a stroke of bad luck.

Mushfiqur and Liton Das tried to put the chase back on but the latter, who made an unbeaten 94 against West Indies in the previous match, perished against the run of play - trapped lbw by Adam Zampa.

Mushfiqur batted with calmness and responsibility, and in an entertaining partnership brought up a fifty-run stand with Mahmudullah (69) after completing his own half-century.

The pair rotated the strike and put up a 100-run stand.

By the end of 40 overs, the Tigers trailed the Aussies by just 5 runs in comparison. But they had no answer to the world champions’ blistering batting in the last 10 overs.

Bangladesh could score only 88 against Australia’s 131 in those crucial overs.

Having racked up their previous highest total of 330 in the opening match against South Africa and chased down 322 with eight overs to spare against the West Indies on Monday, Bangladesh’s chances to pull off what would have been the second-highest successful run chase in one-day cricket history hung in the balance as long as Mahmudullah was out in the middle.

Starting out steadily, Mahmudullah tried to up the ante in the 42nd over by slamming Zampa for a couple of sixes and hitting 39 runs off the next 20 balls.

But when Nathan Coulter-Nile took out a swinging Mahmudullah and Sabbir Rahman off successive balls, Bangladesh’s hopes were gone.

Bangladesh did not help their own cause with some horrendous bowling and sloppy fielding, making it easy for in-form Warner to become the only batsman with two 150-run innings in World Cup.

After getting an early reprieve on 10 when Sabbir dropped him at the third-man off Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, the Australian opener stitched together a 121-run opening stand with skipper Finch.

Part-time bowler Soumya broke the stand by surprising Finch (53 off 51) with extra bounce in the 21st over, and he went on to become the pick of the Bangladesh bowlers with three wickets.

Khawaja then smashed 89 off 72 with Warner in the middle as the two left-handers kept the pressure on the Bangladeshi bowlers. Their century stand for the third wicket set the platform for the massive total, bdnews24.com reported.

Maxwell contributed to the huge total with a quickfire 32 off 10 balls.

Mehidy Hasan Miraz had the most economical run rate of 5.9 per over.

The others conceded more than seven runs per over with Rubel Hossain (9.22) bleeding the most runs.

Australia are now sitting pretty atop the table with 10 points thanks to five wins from six games.

Bangladesh, who suffered their third defeat in six games, are still fifth on five points. They need to win most of their matches and other results to go their way to make it to the top four.

Brief Scores: Australia 381 for five in 50 overs (David Warner 166, Usman Khawaja 89, Soumya Sarkar 3-58, Mustafizur Rahman 1-69) beat Bangladesh 333 for eight in 50 overs (Mushfiqur Rahim 102*, Mahmudullah 69, Marcus Stoinis 2-54, Mitchell Starc 2-55) by 48 runs.