{"id":736548,"date":"2026-06-14T19:05:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T19:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/736548\/"},"modified":"2026-06-14T19:05:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T19:05:10","slug":"connolly-fights-off-cramps-in-innings-of-a-lifetime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/736548\/","title":{"rendered":"Connolly fights off cramps in innings of a lifetime"},"content":{"rendered":"

Emerging star Cooper Connolly had to overcome cramps which sent his body into shock as he peeled off a majestic maiden international century to pilot Australia to a gripping one-wicket win over Bangladesh in the third and final ODI.<\/p>\n

Connolly smashed 149 off 133 deliveries – the equal 27th highest score by an Australian in ODIs – at a hot, humid Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Dhaka on Sunday, as the tourists edged past Bangladesh’s 5-274 with three deliveries to spare, thus avoiding a 3-0 series whitewash.<\/p>\n

\"Australia's<\/p>\n

Australia’s Cooper Connolly scored his first century for Australia in the third ODI in Dhaka. (AP PHOTO)<\/p>\n

Connolly, whose previous highest score was 61no in ODIs and 64 in all List-A games, hit 13 fours and six sixes.The next highest Australian score was Marnus Labuschagne’s 29.<\/p>\n

“Tough towards the end,” he admitted. “I felt like my body was all in shock and not wanting to move.<\/p>\n

“But it was nice to play a role in a win for Australia.<\/p>\n

“The enjoyment of playing for Australia and batting out in the middle is always something that’s exciting and to spend a bit of time out there was nice.”<\/p>\n

After cruising at 5-266, the Aussies suffered a 4-5 collapse to crash to 9-271, before Adam Zampa raised victory when he drove Taskin Ahmed through the covers for four.<\/p>\n

Recalled left-arm seamer Shoriful Islam (6-48) was the chief destroyer for the Tigers and could have been the match-winner – and had seven scalps – had Tanzid Hasan not grassed Zampa at wide slip.<\/p>\n

Connolly watched the carnage from the other end, before departing in the 49th over – the ninth wicket to fall, with four runs required – playing on to Mustafizur Rahman.<\/p>\n

“I was obviously a little disappointed in myself because I’d done all the hard work to get to that position,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It would have been nice to carry your bat through the whole innings.<\/p>\n

“I think there’s always faith in whoever’s out there – whether it’s No.10 and 11 – I’m always willing to back them in.<\/p>\n

“The emotions were (I was) quite upset and disappointed in myself, but it was nice to get over the line.”<\/p>\n

\"Australia<\/p>\n

Australia captain Josh Inglis (r) has led his side to a welcome ODI victory over Bangladesh. (AP PHOTO)<\/p>\n

Connolly and stand-in captain Josh Inglis set the tempo for the Aussies’ chase by attacking Bangladesh’s new-ball bowlers.<\/p>\n

That swashbuckling approach has served Connolly well so far across all formats in his still young career.<\/p>\n

“Looking into it, ODI cricket is quite similar to how I play my red-ball cricket,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I like to be aggressive and I like to score.<\/p>\n

“That’s the whole point of batting in the powerplay – you want to be aggressive and put guys under pressure.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Emerging star Cooper Connolly had to overcome cramps which sent his body into shock as he peeled off…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":736549,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,13047,26808,11883,44],"class_list":["post-736548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bangladesh","tag-cooper-connolly","tag-mustafizur-rahman","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736548","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=736548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736548\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/736549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=736548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=736548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=736548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}