Australia Women's tour of Bangladesh - Series Digest

4th April - 3rd T20I

Australia completed a 0-3 clean sweep of the T20Is after a convincing 77-run victory against Bangladesh Women.

After choosing to bat, skipper Alyssa Healy led the way with a 29-ball 45 that set the innings up. The lone hiccup came through the middle after Healy fell to Nahida Akter with Australia on 62. The left-arm spinner prised through the middle order picking up Ellyse Perry and Ashleigh Gardner in quick succession. Australia lost three wickets for 24 runs in this period before losing Georgia Wareham also soon after. At 98/5, Bangladesh Women were in sight of restricting Australia Women to a low total. However, Tahlia McGrath and Grace Harris put on an unbeaten 57-run stand that resurrected the visitors. McGrath hit two fours and as many sixes in her 29-ball 44 as Australia racked up 155.

The defence of the total went along a more straightforward path with Bangladesh Women not putting up much of a challenge. Nigar Sultana's 32 stood out in an otherwise poor scorecard where the team was bowled out for a mere 78 to concede a massive victory.

Brief Scores: Australia Women 155/6 (Alyssa Healy 45, Tahlia McGrath 44; Nahida Akter 3-31) beat Bangladesh Women 78 all out (Nigar Sultana 32; Tayla Vlaeminck 3-12) by 77 runs

2nd April - 2nd T20I

Despite Bangladesh pacer Fariha Trisna's return to action with a hat-trick - and a four-fer in all, Australia picked up a comfortable victory to wrap up the three-match series 2-0. Before Trisna could make dents, Australia were carried ahead by the second-wicket pairing of Grace Harris (47 off 34) and Georgia Wareham (57 off 30). Ellyse Perry and Tahlia McGrath chipped in too, as Australia posted 161 for 8.

Ashleigh Gardner and Sophie Molineux then picked three wickets each and conceded just 27 in the eight overs between them as Bangladesh struggled in chase. Megan Schutt picked a couple of wickets too with Bangladesh's middle-order imploding in chase. As many as six batters returned single-digit scores with opener Dilara Akter's 27 the best effort. Bangladesh finished on 103 for 9 in 20 overs, 58 short of their target.

Brief Scores: Australia 161/8 in 20 overs (Georgia Wareham 57, Grace Harris 47; Fariha Trisna 4-19) beat Bangladesh 103/9 in 20 overs (Dilara Akter 27; Ashleigh Gardner 3-17, Sophie Molineux 3-10) by 58 runs

April 2 - Fariha returns to T20Is with a hat-trick

Fariha Trishna, the Bangladesh left-arm pacer, said on Tuesday that she was happy to make a noteworthy contribution on her comeback to international cricket.

Fariha, who was suffering from a back injury, played her first T20I since the 2022 T20 World Cup, and became only the third player in women's cricket to clinch two hat-tricks in international cricket. On Tuesday, she dismissed Ellyse Perry, Sophie Molineux and Beth Mooney with the last three deliveries of the innings, finishing with figures of 4-19.

Hong Kong's Kary Chan and Uganda's Consylate Aweko Numungu are the two other women cricketers to bag two hat-tricks.

Despite her career-best effort, it was not enough to save her side from a 58-run defeat to Australia in the second game of the three-match T20I which helped the visitors clinch the series with one game in hand.

Nonetheless, Fariha repaid the faith of the selection panel and the team management as they kept her with them in different programs during her time of recovery so that they could keep an eye on her progress.

"The comeback was difficult as the injury was quite serious and it took time for me to return,'' Fariha told reporters after the game. "We had two camps with Champaka Ramanayke and that also helped.

"I didn't have any doubt (that I would make a comeback) but my first priority was to get cured. After that, I wanted to follow the process and that is what I did and was waiting for my chance to come so that I could seize my opportunity," she said.

Fariha is considered to be putting a major challenge to Marufa Akter as the duo are only pacers in the team which is hugely dependent on the spinners..

"I don't have any competition with Marufa as she is a world-class bowler and she is the best in her place and it is difficult to replace her (Marufa)," said Fariha. "I was trying to bowl in good areas and happy to maintain the line and length.

"Certainly the loss is disappointing because if the team can achieve something through my performance in that case I could have celebrated this achievement," she added.

Australian Grace Harris also praised Fariha for her tremendous effort. "Fantastic for her. I think she gets really good late shape back into the right-hand batter. I'm assuming she's quite young, so she's got a lot of room to improve or to develop her game. But with the new ball, I actually found her a bit more challenging to face 'cause she gets just quite late shape back in," said Grace.

"And she's quite accurate and on a length. So, I'm pretty happy with how I played her and good on her for getting a hat trick and for bowling quite well today," she concluded.

March 31 - 1st T20I

Australia openers Alyssa Healy and Beth Mooney made mincemeat of Bangladesh's 126 for 4 to take a 1-0 lead in the T20I series through a commanding