The Australian cricket team lost a unique world record they held as they lost to Bangladesh in the first ODI of a three-match series on Tuesday (June 9) by a thumping margin of 86 runs (D/L method) at the Sher-e-Bangla Stadium in Dhaka. The result meant that a 20-year-old unbeaten run for the six-time world champions ended as they hit an all-time low.
Playing a makeshift team that is led by Josh Inglis in the absence of captain Pat Cummins as well as vice-captain Mitchell Marsh alongside several other key players like Travis Head, Mitchell Starc, and Hazlewood, the Australians continued their poor form in the ODI format after losing an ODI series to Pakistan 2-1 earlier this month.
Australia Lose Unique World Record
Today’s defeat was the first time that Australia lost to Bangladesh in an ODI game on Bangladeshi soil. Previously, the two teams had played six ODI games in Bangladesh in the 50-over format since the first one, meeting in 2006. All these games (3 in 2006 and 3 in 2011) were won by the Australians as they won both bilateral series by a 3-0 margin.
Australia have lost their unique world record of being the only team to never lose an ODI to Bangladesh in Bangladesh. No other team has even played even one match against the Tigers away from home and not suffered a defeat.
Record of Teams vs Bangladesh in Bangladesh (ODI Cricket)
| team | Matches Played | Matches Won | Lost Matches | ties | NR |
| Australia | 7 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Netherlands | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Scotland | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| South Africa | 9 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| England | 13 | 10 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Kenya | 6 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| afghanistan | 10 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| Pakistan | 20 | 15 | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| India | 25 | 18 | 6 | 0 | 1 |
| Ireland | 7 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 1 |
| Sri Lanka | 23 | 15 | 8 | 0 | 0 |
| new zealand | 19 | 8 | 10 | 0 | 1 |
| West Indies | 23 | 10 | 11 | 1 | 1 |
| Zimbabwe | 44 | 11 | 33 | 0 | 0 |
In fact, apart from Ireland, the only instance of a full member nation not losing a game against another Test-playing side is South Africa against Zimbabwe. The Proteas have faced their neighbors in 13 ODIs away from home and won all games.
In fact, Australia are the only team to play more than three ODIs against one country away from home and lost not more than one game. The reigning World Cup winners have only lost one game against Zimbabwe in their history in Zimbabwe.
Full Member Nations Teams To Lose 1 Or Less ODIs Against A Test-Playing Nation Away From Home
This is only the second time Australia has lost an ODI to Bangladesh and the first instance in 21 years. The Men in Yellow’s only other defeat to the Asian team came in 2005 during a tri-series match (involving England) at Cardiff during Ricky Ponting’s captaincy tenure. Mohammad Ashraful scored a century to help his team win a last-over thriller by five wickets under Habibul Bashar’s leadership. Bangladesh chased a target of 250 with four balls to spare.
Meanwhile, this is Australia’s first defeat in an ODI to any team in Bangladesh in 28 years. The only other loss they suffered in the 50-over format in the subcontinent country was during the 1998 ICC Knockout Cup (now known as ICC Champions Trophy) to India at Dhaka’s iconic national stadium.
The Men in Blue won the fixture by 44 runs under Mohammad Azharuddin’s captaincy. Sachin Tendulkar was the star of the show in the fixture with a sublime innings of 141. The Master Blaster also took four wickets with the ball later.
Australia will now hope to avoid the embarrassment of losing an ODI series in Bangladesh for the first time.
