The washout left Australia in a precarious position in regards to their hopes of making it to the semi-finals

Image courtesy of: Zimbio

Australia were cruising in their Champions Trophy clash against Bangladesh on Monday, but their hopes of winning the match and gaining some valuable points were dashed by the rain.

Australia were sitting on 83/1 after 16 overs and had there been four more overs bowled while they were batting, a result would have been guaranteed.

With their opening game against New Zealand having ended in the same fashion, Australia must now beat England on Saturday in order to have any hope of qualifying for the semi-finals.

Choosing to bat first, Bangladesh lost opener Soumya Sarkar early on as he was caught behind off the bowling of Josh Hazlewood for three runs.

Imrul Kayes and wicketkeeper Mushfiqur Rahim also failed to have an impact as they returned to the pavilion after scoring six and nine runs respectively.

Tamim Iqbal and Shakib Al Hasan stabilised the innings with a 69-run partnership, during which Iqbal surpassed his fifty, before Shakib was trapped lbw off the bowling of Travis Head for 29.

Once Shakib was gone, Bangladesh’s collapse resumed as they lost Sabbir Rahman and Mahmudullah in quick succession to Adam Zampa.

Mitchell Starc dominated from that point on as he took the last four wickets to fall, three of which came in the space of four balls in the same over.

The first wicket Starc took was the highly important one of Iqbal, who scored 95 off 114 balls, which included six boundaries and three sixes.

Iqbal fell five runs short of his 10th ODI hundred

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As a result of Starc’s superb bowling, Bangladesh were skittled out for 182 in the 45th over.

Starc was the pick of the bowlers with four wickets, while Zampa snapped up two and Hazlewood, Head, Pat Cummins and Moises Heriques chipped in with one wicket apiece.

Chasing 183 to win, Australia made a solid start to their innings before Aaron Finch was given out lbw off the bowling of Rubel Hossain for 19.

Just when David Warner and captain Steve Smith had begun to rebuild the innings, the rain came and the players had to leave the field.

Warner became the fastest Australian batsman to score 4,000 ODI runs and joint-third fastest in history

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With the rain refusing to relent, the umpires had no choice but to call the match off.

Warner was left unbeaten on 40 off 44 balls, which included two boundaries, while Smith remained undefeated on 22 off 25 deliveries, which included a solitary boundary.

Rubel was the only bowler to take a wicket.