Super Cooper\u2019s arrival was not without a scare.<\/p>\n
A maiden one-day international century from Cooper Connolly guided Australia to a nail-biting victory over Bangladesh at Shere Bangla National Stadium.<\/p>\n
Chasing Bangladesh\u2019s 5-274, Australia narrowly avoided a catastrophic capitulation and series whitewash around Connolly\u2019s 149 from 134 balls.<\/p>\n
Connolly took the Aussies within nine runs of the target with a hat-trick of sixes in the 45th over before the Tigers captured 4-5 to force the game into the final over.<\/p>\n
The sharp southpaw built his innings on offside flamboyance and brought up his breakthrough ton with a composed straight drive.<\/p>\n
Connolly reached the triple-figure milestone \u2013 his first at international, List A and first-class level \u2013 off just 87 deliveries. <\/p>\n
The brutal Dhaka conditions left Connolly struggling with cramp and fatigue, but he refused to give his wicket away cheaply.<\/p>\n
Connolly was supported in short by Marnus Labuschagne (29), Cameron Green (27) and fellow young gun Ollie Peake (27).<\/p>\n
Peake started the collapse with a loose shot but he was joined in the pavilion by Xavier Bartlett only a ball later.<\/p>\n
Connolly was then dismissed with four runs to win, unluckily dragging a big drive onto his stumps.<\/p>\n
Shoriful Islam led the Tigers\u2019 resurgence, claiming 6-48 and having a chance off Adam Zampa dropped at gully off his penultimate delivery in the 48th over.<\/p>\n
Zampa eventually used his wealth of experience to ice the game, slamming a drive to the cover boundary with two runs needed to win.<\/p>\n
The successful chase came after Bangladesh, as it has done for much of the series, found a crucial partnership with the bat.<\/p>\n
Bartlett (2-47) claimed a wicket inside the first over and Matt Renshaw (2-44) \u2013 after being introduced in the 10th over \u2013 took two quick wickets.<\/p>\n
But Litton Das (58 not out) and Tawhid Hridoy (83) then combined for 92 runs before Das retired hurt with debilitating cramp. <\/p>\n
The new batter to the crease, Musaddek Hossain, offered no relief for the Aussies, continuing his career revival with another half-century (56 not out).<\/p>\n
Bangladesh built another case for victory, but Australia this time had an answer in the blend of an emerging talent and a proven star.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Super Cooper\u2019s arrival was not without a scare. A maiden one-day international century from Cooper Connolly guided Australia…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":736234,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[355810,64,63,44],"class_list":["post-736233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-matchidodi20260803","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=736233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/736234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=736233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=736233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=736233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}