Bangladesh v Australia: third women’s one-day international – live | Australia women’s cricket team | Only Sports And Health

7th over: Australia 34-0 (Healy 31, Litchfield 3) Healy is not having the same difficulties as Litchfield – she starts the over by smashing two fours – both pulled through deep square leg. She takes a ball to catch her breath, then goes even harder with a six, driven hard over long off. She’s in some kind of a mood today!

6th over: Australia 20-0 (Healy 17, Litchfield 3) Healy gets Litchfield back on strike early in the over, but the youngster is struggling to find runs here. Let’s see if she can find her way into the game.

5th over: Australia 19-0 (Healy 16, Litchfield 3) Healy starts this over with a huge six straight down the ground and back over the bowler Sultana’s head. She then takes a quick single to keep the strike rotating, but Litchfield isn’t finding scoring as easy so far. She goes for a huge reverse sweep and is nearly caught – that settled start is starting to look a little more rocky as the overs tick by. She plays a couple of more conventional shots, but can’t find a gap in the field.

4th over: Australia 12-0 (Healy 9, Litchfield 3) Nahida continues with her spell and on the second ball of the over, Healy steps on to her back foot and cuts the ball beautifully, finding the gap and sending it racing through cover to the boundary for four. She then takes a quick single to give Litchfield back the strike. Nahida is finding a better line to the left hander and Litchfield can’t find any runs to finish the over. It appears there’s an edge on the final ball of the over, but Joty can’t hold the catch or collect the ball cleanly for the stumping. Litchfield survives.

3rd over: Australia 7-0 (Healy 4, Litchfield 3) Sultana resumes, coming around the wicket to Litchfield, who is looking more settled than she has in the previous two games – she isn’t forcing anything through, she’s looking for her opportunities and runs a nice two when she gets the chance. It’s the only runs for the over though.

2nd over: Australia 5-0 (Healy 4, Litchfield 1) Now Litchfield gets her first opportunity of the day and she gets off the mark immediately to Nahida by playing it neatly to short midwicket and dashing through for a single. Healy looks much more like herself, with a big sweep shot for four from her first ball faced this over. She goes back into defensive mode and blocks out the rest of the over.

1st over: Australia 0-0 (Healy 0, Litchfield 0) The chase is underway! Healy and Litchfield stride out to the middle and Sultana Khatun takes the new ball for Bangladesh. There’s an appeal for LBW against Healy on the first ball of the over, but the umpire isn’t interested. It’s a settled start from Healy, she’s content to defend for now, which is unusual for her. There’s another LBW appeal later in the over, but no luck on that one either. Sultana starts with a maiden.

One player I’ll be looking at very closely in this chase is Phoebe Litchfield. The 20-year-old has scored only five runs so far on this tour and she will be desperately wanting to make a decent score here. She has an average of 42.66 in ODIs, but she hasn’t been doing that average any favours recently. Litchfield won’t have a chance to beat her high score of 119 today, but she can bat at about her average if she plays her cards right. Finishing not out would also be an aim for her to show she can thrive under Bangladeshi conditions before September’s World Cup.

Bangladesh all out for 89

WICKET! Sultana c Harris b Gardner

26th over: Bangladesh 88-9 (Sultana 10, Marufa 14)

10 runs from Molineux’s over. Marufa mishits the first towards long off and they are able to run three. Lovely drive from Sultana finds the gap at deep cover and goes for four. Sultana plays to fine leg for two runs to end the over, these two are looking good!

25th over: Bangladesh 78-9 (Sultana 4, Marufa 11) Marufa is enjoying herself! She smacks Gardner down the ground for four, then sweeps to square leg. And how about another boundary to finish – Sultana this time drops the knee and hits it back over the bowler’s head again.

24th over: Bangladesh 69-9 (Sultana 0, Marufa 6) After surviving a possible stumping, Marufa thumps it high over mid-on and it falls safely, they run two. Mis-field from Harris on the final ball allows Bangladesh to run three more. Relatively expensive in the context of this match.

23rd over: Bangladesh 64-9 (Sultana 0, Marufa 1) Shorna survived a catching chance after hitting it straight up but it fell just short of Alana King. But then she’s caught the next ball anyway and the misery continues for Bangladesh. Marufa gets a single to end the over.

WICKET! Shorna c Litchfield b Gardner

22nd over: Bangladesh 60-8 (Shorna 6, Sultana 0) Another solid over from Molineux with just one run from it and a wicket.

WICKET! Nahida st Healy b Molineux

21st over: Bangladesh 59-7 (Rabeya 0, Shorna 6) I was in the midst of writing that it was better over from the two young Bangladesh players in the middle … but then Rabeya hit a sole boundary and then departed and Shorna nearly followed.

WICKET! Rabeya lbw b Gardner

20th over: Bangladesh 54-6 (Rabeya 0, Shorna 6) Another good over from Molineux with Rabeya defending cautiously. It’s like Bangladesh can’t decide now whether to be cautious or not.

19th over: Bangladesh 54-6 (Rabeya 0, Shorna 6) Gardner starts with a wide followed by six dots. Shorna shows a bit of intent with a tentative step down the wicket but can’t find any gaps in the close field.

18th over: Bangladesh 53-6 (Rabeya 0, Shorna 6) Molineux starting as she left off last match. She’s getting lots of turn and it’s a maiden over.

WICKET! Nigar lbw Molineux

17th over: Bangladesh 53-5 (Nigar 16, Shorna 6) Gardner bowling with Litchfield padded up and moved to short leg. Bangladesh are starting to push for quick singles, leading to Healy to shout “come on” to get her fielders moving a bit faster!

16th over: Bangladesh 51-5 (Nigar 15, Shorna 5) Bangladesh are showing a bit more aggression. Nigar hits the second ball past deep mid-wicket for four, then they squeeze in a couple of tight singles. Finally making past 50.

15th over: Bangladesh 45-5 (Nigar 10, Shorna 4) Ashleigh Gardner joins the bowling mix. Nigar starts by just dabbing at it, then makes a nice cover drive and runs two, ending the over with a single to backward square leg.

14th over: Bangladesh 42-5 (Nigar 7, Shorna 4) Molineux comes in for some spin. Player of the match in the second ODI taking 3-10. Australia come in close and there’s just one run from it. Time for a quick drinks break!

13th over: Bangladesh 41-5 (Nigar 6, Shorna 4) Shorna gets off the mark with a boundary to start the over, edging it past third man. Biiiiiig lb shout on Garth’s fifth delivery but no interest and looks like it’s pitching outside. Chance for a catch maybe on the last but it’s low and Healy can’t take it cleanly.

12th over: Bangladesh 37-5 (Nigar 6, Shorna 0) Sutherland is back in and Nigar fianlly finds the boundary, hitting it hard through to fine leg. The fielder makes contact but it rolls on to hit the rope.

11th over: Bangladesh 32-5 (Nigar 2, Shorna 0) Two wickets, no runs. Garth is on fire.

WICKET! Fahima c Healy b Garth

WICKET! Ritu c Perry b Garth

10th over: Bangladesh 32-3 (Nigar 2, Ritu 1) Healy brings Annabel Sutherland into the mix – the saviour from the first ODI. She probably wouldn’t be happy with the extras from her first over. One wide followed by four leg byes down fine leg. Then Ritu smacks the fourth to mid-off and somehow squeezes in a single.

9th over: Bangladesh 26-3 (Nigar 2, Ritu 2) Consistent bowling from Garth and it’s a maiden. The pressure is on Nigar now to steady the ship and make sure Bangladesh can see out the full 50 overs.

8th over: Bangladesh 26-3 (Nigar 2, Ritu 2) Ritu steps up after the departure of Murshida and swings and misses. Then Perry’s final ball smacks the pad and goes to fine leg for which they run two.

WICKET! Murshida c Healy b Perry

7th over: Bangladesh 24-2 (Murshida 8, Nigar 2) Another maiden from Garth who is showing a bit of variation moving from in-swingers to out-swingers mid-over. Nigar is making contact but not able to do much else.

6th over: Bangladesh 24-2 (Murshida 8, Nigar 2) A more expensive over for Australia. Murshida misses and blocks the first two. Perry bowls her first wide, then again two balls later but this time Healy can’t reach it and it goes through for four. Beautiful cover drive from Murshida beats the fielder and runs for four to end the over.

5th over: Bangladesh 14-2 (Murshida 4, Nigar 2) Bangladesh are struggling to find the gaps at the moment. Murshida drives a full toss from Garth through mid-wicket but Harris is able to flick the ball back from the boundary but they run three.

4th over: Bangladesh 11-2 (Murshida 1, Nigar 2) Murshida gets off the mark of the last ball of Perry’s second over, playing to deep cover. And then the captain Nigar Sultana plays a full toss to deep square for two.

3rd over: Bangladesh 8-2 (Murshida 0) Fargana edges through the slips for Bangladesh’s first boundary, but three balls later is picked up by Litchfield.

WICKET! Fargana c Litchfield b Garth

2nd over: Bangladesh 4-1 (Fargana 1, Murshida 0) Great start for Australia with an early wicket and Bangladesh are looking a bit shaky.

WICKET! Sumaiya c Harris b Perry

1st over: Bangladesh 0-0 (Fargana 0, Sumaiya 0) Garth bowls the first over, Fargana plays and misses three of those out-swingers. There’s a big shout for lbw on the final ball but no interest from the umpire. Nice maiden over for Australia.

It’s the same pitch as was used in the first ODI – after winning the toss and electing to bowl Australia’s captain Alyssa Healy says there’s a bit more moisture in the pitch today (although still quite hard) so she wanted to have a bowl first.

The teams

While I wait for the feed to start, there was some very exciting news last night from Cricket Australia as they released the schedule for the 2024-25 summer.

England will be visiting Australia for the women’s Ashes series, and for the first time in 76 years (!) there will be a women’s Test match held at the MCG. A day-night one at that!

Unfortunately it will still only be a four day affair… but I’m not going to get into that issue right now.

Here’s how things ended after the second ODI on Sunday. Sophie Molineux came back into the side for her first ODI since 2021 and showed everyone what they had been missing in her absence.

Australia win the toss and bowl

Preamble

Jo Khan