Renshaw: 'Nice to realise that I'm good enough at T20Is'

Matt Renshaw's rapid half-century lifted Australia Associated Press

Mitchell Marsh's celebration when he took catches of Parvez Hossain Emon and Saif Hassan spoke volumes about Australia's mood for retribution as they took an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three match T20I series against Bangladesh.

It was a critical moment for the visitors. Emon and Hassan were doing well in the chase of 197 but when they fell within the space of four balls - Marsh taking both skiers - the game changed. Now Australia have something to take home after losing the ODI series 2-1. Matt Renshaw, who turned in a Player-of-the-Match winning performance on Friday, said that Australia felt disappointed with that scoreline and that it played a part in their improved performances that followed.

"Yeah, [it was] a little bit [of settling scores]," Renshaw said. "There were a few really good games in the one-day series. It felt like every game we were just a little bit shy. We were probably 20-30 runs short in a couple of games. These last two games, obviously chasing down in the first game and setting a really nice target today, it's nice to sort of get a little bit of the rub of the green, especially since it's been a tough tour wins-wise. So it is nice to get a couple of wins and wrap up the series after two games."

Renshaw made an unbeaten 89 at a crucial stage for Australia who had lost three wickets inside the powerplay. "I think obviously my international career has been a bit strange around different formats, but I think just being able to be comfortable in my skin, today was a really important innings for me. It came just after a run of low scores, just remembering why I wanted to play and how I wanted to play.

"The way that I started was one of the best starts that I've had in my [T20] career. And I was really pumped about that, and then to go on and make the score that I did and set the team up for a good win was really good in this format. I think there's always those doubts around whether you're good enough, especially when you're in and out of formats and in and out of teams. So it was nice to realise that I'm good enough at this format."

Tim David helped Renshaw's cause with some spectacular hitting in his 26-ball 45. "I wouldn't say there was a plan, it was just the way obviously Timmy plays," Renshaw said. "There was a short boundary, the wind was going that way. He felt the match-up, but it was more just a really good communication around what we were after, which bowlers we felt we wanted to attack. I think the big one was that even if we did have a few dots, it wasn't the end of the world. We felt like we could still score."

Renshaw was methodical in his approach, nurdling the ball around for ones and twos, before launching into legspinner Rishad Hossain in the tenth over. He said that he was satisfied with the innings given how his tour of Pakistan and Bangladesh have been so far.

"It was just about having really good intent," he said. "I felt like that's something I've lacked over the last, especially the one-dayers. Coming from Pakistan, it was something that was my strength and just a little bit of a lack of clarity and a lack of how I wanted to play.

"When you miss out a couple of times, that can happen. And today, I would have been happy with 20, the way I started my innings, and fortunately for me, I am sitting here now talking to you guys."

The bigger surprise from Renshaw has been his bowling. The part-time offspinner has eight wickets at 18.37 over the course of the three ODIs and two T20Is against Bangladesh, the most by any bowler from Australia.

"Apparently my bowling's not great. I saw a little tidbit from one of the Bangladeshi players," he quipped. "I see my bowling as something that I love doing, but I see it from more of a batting point of view, trying to work out what the batter's trying to do each different ball. I know that I'm probably not going to hit every ball where I want to, so trying to just adjust where I can with fields, and just do whatever I can for the team. And fortunately, I've got a couple of wickets this tour."

Australia also had to thank Adam Zampa, Nathan Ellis and Aaron Hardie for shutting out Bangladesh in the last five overs of a tight game.

"I haven't had much to do with [Nathan] Ellis over my career, but watching him go about it, the way that he can execute the slower balls, compare him to the Fizz [Mustafizur Rahman] doing that job from that end that Fizz bowled from," Renshaw said. "Fortunately for us, he just does what he does. He doesn't give the batter a really good read. And I think it's probably some of the best death bowling I've seen and best bowling in that, I think he went for 25 and four of them was a nick through slips. So he's really valuable to our team, especially in that middle to late overs when we're trying to defend."