Watson beat Bangladesh by 9 wicket

Shane Watson beat Bangladesh's bowlers and achieve a world record tally of sixes as the Australians with a nine-wicket victory in the second limited overs match in Mirpur to seal the series. The target of 230 had appeared a possible target on a slow pitch offering some turn, but Watson made such light work of it, that his unbeaten185 from 96 balls now stands as the highest ODI score by an Australian, overtaking Matthew Hayden's 181 against New Zealand in 2007. Once Bangladesh were 88 for 5. But Rahim, allrounder Mahmudullah and left-arm spinner Suhrawadi Shuvo pushed the hosts to 229 for 7.

Shahriar Nafees had done his best to keep the first half of the innings from petering out entirely but he was not helped by the funereal approach of opener Imrul Kayes, who lingered 41 balls to gouge out five runs. Mitchell Johnson and Steve Smith shared five well-deserved wickets, while Brett Lee was short of luck during a spell that was damaged after he leaked 17 runs in his final over.

As if to stamp his intent on proceedings, Watson coshed 14 from the first over of the reply and made 27 before his partner, Brad Haddin, had even faced a ball. Together they added 62 before Haddin, having contributed eight, mistimed a catch to midwicket for his second low score of the series.

Shakib Al Hasan won the toss, Tamim Iqbal offered a flashy drive at Johnson in the second over and sliced to the left of the solitary slip where Shane Watson held an excellent catch. In the next over Lee and the rest of the Australians were convinced they had Imrul gloving a well-directed short ball behind, but a vociferous and sustained appeal went unheeded, decision reviews not being used during the series. Australia's disgust at not claiming the wicket would be alleviated across the next eight overs, as Imrul crawled to five from 41 balls, draining the innings of all momentum and then compounded his sin by swinging unwisely at Johnson to sky a leg-side catch.

The home side's only change was to withdraw Mashrafe Mortaza from the firing line, replaced by Rubel Hossain, after Mortaza was significantly down on his usual pace in the series opener. Given Watson's subsequent pyrotechnics, he may have been relieved to sit this one out.