Late collapse rocks Aussies

AUSTRALIA were last night hanging on for dear life against Bangladesh after David Warner and Usman Khawaja fell in a chaotic collapse before stumps in Dhaka.

Nathan Lyon had only just joined Australia’s elusive 250wicket club before he was thrust into the middle as Australia’s nightwatchman and became the third victim in a stunning slide to be 3- 18 at stumps.

After Lyon, Pat Cummins and Ashton Agar all claimed three- wicket hauls to bowl Bangladesh out for 260, it all went pear shaped for Australia when they only had nine overs to get through.

On a perilously spinning wicket, Warner’s run of outs on the sub- continent continued when he was trapped lbw for eight, only for Khawaja to calamitously run himself out, panicked at the pressure created by a ninth- ranked Bangladeshi side which believes they can knock over Goliath.

After all the inroads made in India earlier this year, it was suddenly back to the bad old days for the Australian top order as they lost three wickets in 10 balls.

Warner had only just overturned a shocking lbw decision from umpire Aleem Dar where he had smashed the cover off the ball, only to be trapped the next delivery by Bangladeshi spinner Mehedi Hasan.

Khawaja, playing his first international match since January 22, then failed to play a shot to Shakib Al Hasan, before having a brain explosion and charging down the wicket, only to be turned back and caught short diving for his crease.