Aussies seal whitewash

3rd ODI, Darwin: Australia 254-7 beat Bangladesh 142 by 112 runs

Full Scorecard

Symonds missed out with the bat, run out for a duck

Australia comfortably beat Bangladesh in the third and final one-day international to seal a series whitewash.

Captain Ricky Ponting top-scored with 101 as Australia amassed 254-7 before bowling Bangladesh out 112 runs short in the 48th over.

But there was a scare for the World Champions when they lost three wickets for two runs in 14 balls.

After winning the toss and electing to bat, Australia made a solid start with Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden putting on 54 for the opening wicket before Gilchrist fell to spinner Mohammad Rafique for 31.

Rafique captured a second wicket when he took a return catch to get rid of Hayden for 42, triggering a minor collapse.

Darwin-born Damien Martyn departed for one when he played on to Alok Kapali, then Andrew Symonds was run out for a duck as the Australians slid to 114-4 before Ponting and Michael Bevan steadied matters.

Ponting made a slow start on a pitch that was proving difficult to score off but quickly grew in confidence, smashing four sixes and two fours to post his 14th one-day international ton, before being dismissed in the 49th over.

Bevan also batted aggressively, cracking two fours and two sixes, before he succumbed to a full toss from Mashrafe Mortaza, who also dismissed Ian Harvey for five on the last ball of the innings.

In reply, Bangladesh got off to a terrible start when Hannan Sarkar was out lbw for one to Jason Gillespie.

The slide continued although there was a mini fightback by Alok Kapali, who was caught and bowled by Brad Hogg on 49.

Medium pacer Ian Harvey did the damage with the ball, taking 4-16 in 6.3 overs.

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Australia: A C Gilchrist (Wkt), M L Hayden, R T Ponting (Capt) D R Martyn, M G Bevan, A Symonds, I J Harvey, G B Hogg, A J Bichel J N Gillespie, B A Williams.

Bangladesh: Hannan Sarkar (Wkt), Javed Omar, Habibul Bashar Tushar Imran, Sanwar Hossain, Mohammad Ashraful, Alok Kapali Khaled Mahmud (Capt), Tapash Baisya, Mohammad Rafique Mashrafe Mortaza.

Umpires: D R Shepherd and S J A Taufel