Australian batsman Damien Martyn narrowly missed a place in the limited-overs record books to lead his side to a nine-wicket win Sunday over Bangladesh in the second of a three-match series.
Australia made 148-1 in 20.2 overs after bowling out Bangladesh for 148.
PHOTO: AP
Martyn finished on 92 not out off 51 balls. If he had been able to reach his century it would have been one of the fastest in one-day history.
Shahid Afridi of Pakistan holds top spot with a 37-ball century. Brian Lara (45 balls) and Sanath Jayasuriya (48 balls) are the next fastest and the fourth fastest is off 62 balls by India's Mohammad Azharuddin.
Martyn hit 15 fours and one six Sunday to record the equal ninth-fastest half-century in history. His 50 came off 22 balls with nine fours and a six.
Martyn was playing his second match since he broke his finger in the World Cup. After an operation on the finger, which was broken in five places, Martyn had four months out and missed the tour of the West Indies.
When Australia needed 10 runs to win, Martyn was on 90 from 43 balls but off strike.
Michael Bevan (40 not out) ruined any chance of Martyn making history when he straight hit Sanwar Hossain for successive boundaries in the 19th over to bring Australia to within two runs of victory.
Martyn, having run out of runs, played out five dot balls before taking a single to move to 91 off the last ball of the 20th over and then hit the winning run in the next over.
Martyn said he and Bevan didn't discuss a way to get Martyn across the line for his century.
"There was no talk really, we were just batting and not worried about that," Martyn said. "If you start trying to plan things it can all go wrong."
Earlier, Australia bowled out Bangladesh for 147 in 45.1 overs with Darren Lehmann, in his 100th one-day international, claiming 3-16. Brad Hogg took 3-31 as the left-arm spinners dominated the Bangladeshis.
The success of the two left-arm spinners was in contrast to the fast bowler's success in the opening one-dayer Saturday, where the quicks took nine wickets in an eight-wicket win.
Australia chose to rest Jason Gillespie, bringing in Ian Harvey.
Bangladesh, batting after winning the toss, showed more batting resolve than in the opening hour of Saturday's first match when it lost five wickets for 33 runs.
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