Warner's WC best 166 powers Australia to set mammoth target for Bangladesh

A tournament highest of 166 by David Warner has helped Australia put a huge total of 381 against Bangladesh in their World Cup clash.

Warner partnered with Aaron Finch and Usman Khawaja to hit his second century of this World Cup at Nottingham on Thursday.

Being dropped at point by Sabbir Rahman off Mashrafe Bin Mortaza early on, he stitched together a 121-run opening stand with skipper Finch.

Soumya Sarker broke the stand by surprising Finch (53 off 51) with extra bounce in the 21st over.

Khawaja then smashed 89 off 72 with Warner in the middle as the two left-handers kept the pressure on the Bangladeshi bowlers with another century stand for the third wicket to lay the foundation for a big score.

Maxwell contributed to the huge total with a quickfire 32 off 10 balls.

Soumya was the pick of the Bangladesh bowlers with three wickets.

Soumya was the pick of the Bangladesh bowlers with three wickets while Mehidy Hasan Miraz had the most economical run rate of 5.9 per over.

The others conceded more than seven runs per over with Rubel Hossain (9.22) bleeding the most runs.  

A spell of rain halted the match after the 49th over, but the sky cleared shortly afterwards.    

Earlier, defending champions Australia won the toss and opted to bat first.

The Tigers made two changes to the side that resoundingly beat the West Indies in their last match, with Rubel and Sabbir replacing the injured duo of Mohammad Saifuddin and Mosaddek Hossain.

Skipper Mashrafe admitted he too would have chosen to bat first but remained confident of his team’s chances in the match.

"We would have liked to bat first as well, it's a good wicket," he said.

"But we are chasing well in the last few days. The boys are pretty much confident, especially from the last match.”

On the two changes to the line-up, Mashrafe said, “Mohammad Saifuddin is out because of the back spasm. Mosaddek Hossain hurt his shoulder. So he is out as well."

Bangladesh XI: Tamim Iqbal, Soumya Sarkar, Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), Liton Das, Mahmudullah, Sabbir Rahman, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Mashrafe Mortaza (c), Rubel Hossain, Mustafizur Rahman.

Australia XI: Aaron Finch (c), David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Steven Smith, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Alex Carey (wk), Nathan Coulter-Nile, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa.