Rain gives heartbreak to the Australians

Australia suffered a heartbreak as their ICC Champions Trophy match against Bangladesh was abandoned due to incessant rain after they were well-placed to register an easy win here.

Chasing a modest target of 183 for a win, Australia were 83 for one in 16 overs when rained arrived at the Oval and the match could not be resumed after that.

Another four overs more could have given Australia full two points as 20 overs were needed to constitute a completed match. They were well ahead of the par score for 20 overs.

With the match declared as 'no result', both the sides settled for one point each. This was the second consecutive 'no result' for Australia after their opening match against New Zealand was also washed out on June 2.

Australia now have two points from as many matches and they will now have to win their last Group A match against England on June 10 to qualify for the semifinals.

The 'no result' benefited Bangladesh as a loss would have knocked them out of the tournament. They had lost to England in their opening fixture on June 1.

When rain came at the end of the 16th over of Australian run chase, David Warner and captain Steven Smith were batting on 40 (off 44 balls) and 22 (off 25 balls) respectively. Aaron Finch was the Australian batsman out for 19.

The match was on the verge of being resumed at 8:30pm local time (0100 hrs IST) but as soon as the covers were pulled out of the ground, rain returned to dash any hopes of further play. The umpires finally called off the match at 9:15pm local time (0145 hrs IST).

During his knock, Warner achieved the milestone of scoring 4000 runs in the ODIs, the fastest Australian to do so in his 93rd innings. He started 36 runs short of the milestone. He is now joint-third fastest overall with Indian captain Virat Kohli.

Veteran South African batsman Hashim Amla (81 innings) and West Indies great Vivian Richards (88 innings) had reached the milestone faster than Warner and Kohli.

Earlier, a sensational death bowling spell by Mitchell Starc (4/29) trumped Tamim Iqbal's superb 95 as Australia bowled Bangladesh out for a paltry 182 in 44.3 overs.

Starc destroyed Bangladesh late in the innings with a sensational death bowling display. He grabbed three wickets from the 43rd over, including that of Iqbal. He then scalped the last Bangladesh batsman to end the innings early.

Brief scores: Bangladesh (181 all out). Australia: (target: 183 runs from 50 overs) : Warner not out40, Finch lbw b Hossain19, Smith not out22, Extras: (LB-1 W-1)2, Total: (1 wkt in 16 overs)83.