Cardiff , 18th June - With one of the most unlikely victories in international cricket, Bangladesh have beaten the one day champions with considerable ease at Sophia Gardens in Cardiff. Requiring 250 runs to win, Bangladesh secured the win with four balls to spare following a huge six on the penultimate delivery. Twenty year old Mohammad Ashraful was the deserved man of the match, kissing the ground on reaching his maiden ODI century.

After five overs and with Australia struggling at 2 for 9, you'd have been forgiven for thinking that you had stepped into a parallel universe, one where Bangladesh were the number one ranked ODI team and Australia the novices!

Gilchrist was the first to depart second ball when he played back to Mashrafe Mortaza, missed and was adjudged lbw although replays clearly suggested the ball was going to miss by an inch or more. Mashrafe Mortaza was the pick of the Bangladesh bowlers early on conceding only five runs in his first six overs, very impressive. - Match Scorecard

Ponting's dismissal nine runs later was in no doubt missing a straight ball from Tapash Baisya, who was impressive.

It wasn't a great start for Ponting who surprised everyone when he won the toss and elected to give his players some batting practice; how that has come to bite back at him following tight bowling from the newcomers to international cricket. It might have been more prudent to give the Australian bowlers a chance to attack following a sub standard performance at Taunton mid week.

Matthew Hayden and Damien Martyn settled the ship somewhat and had steered Australia to 51 off the 15 restricted overs. It was a very uncharacteristic performance from Australia who appear to be low in confidence at the moment.

Hayden started to open his shoulders in the 15th over scoring 10 runs (six and a four) off Tapash Baisya and was very fortunate when he was caught off a no ball while trying to Pull Tapash. However after scoring 37 from 50 balls, Hayden was bowled following a big inside edge, the 17 year old Hossain celebrating - Australia were now 3 for 57.

Bangladesh have lost all six previous one-day meetings between the two sides and managed a highest total of only 178.

Clarke and Martyn then combined to restore order with a 100 plus partnership scoring at a pedestrian rate they didn't have it all their own way. Bangladesh missed a trick at the start of the innings and should have applied more pressure but they allowed Australia to crawl back into the game.

A combination of decent line and length and a subdued Australian attack allowed Bangladesh to restrict the attacking side to just one boundary in 16 overs. Scoring only 150 runs from their first 40 overs at under four an over will do nothing to restore the confidence in the Australian team.

Realising the need to increase the rate, Martyn on 77, playing a Bevanesque innings played one shot too many holding out to Nafees Iqbal, Tapash picking up his second wicket of the game. The partnership saw 108 runs added in 26 overs scoring at a run rate of 4.15.

Clarke took 10 off the 43rd over hitting two full toss deliveries to the ropes. He eased his way to his 9th one day 50 the very next ball, a hard fought 50 that has enabled Australia to push for a challenging target on the Cardiff wicket. With Clarke falling four runs later for 54, it was left to Katich and Hussey to push Australia to 5for 249 at the close with a 66 run partnership at 10.15 per over.

Gillespie had Iqbal caught behind for eight, but later in his spell was hit for two consecutive fours by opener Javed Omar.

Tushar Imran did the same to Brad Hogg to deep mid-wicket before picking out Simon Katich for 24, the mid-off fielder catching athletically above his head.

The score was 72-3 in the 21st over when Omar cut at Kasprowicz and found Matthew Hayden at point.

It looked to end any faint hopes Bangladesh had of a result, but the fourth wicket - and Ashraful in particular - gave Australia plenty of uneasy moments.

The hitherto out-of-form right-hander was particularly harsh on Glenn McGrath, spanking him for two fours over extra cover in one over - the second of which brought up his fifth one-day half-century.

Ashraful and Bashar put on a brilliant 130 for the fourth wicket, a record highest-stand for any Bangladesh wicket against Australia at this level. image courtesy of BBC

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