A pulsating knock from one-day cricket's finest entertainer Adam Gilchrist engineered Australia's unnecessarily hard-fought win over Bangladesh at Chittagong Divisional Stadium.

The dynamic left-hander departed before the end of the 11th over having smacked nine fours and launched five sixes in his 76 off 46 balls in front of a full house in the port city.

Australia made hard work of it following his exit before scratching its way to a four-wicket triumph, reaching the victory target of 196 with six overs to spare in baking conditions.

The ever-reliable Mike Hussey (36no) and Brett Lee (12no) guided Australia across the line after spinner Abdur Razzak (3-36 off 10 overs) threatened to derail the world No.1 side's push for victory.

Australian captain Ricky Ponting again praised the Bangladeshi spinners and felt chasing big totals would be difficult on the turning decks in the last two matches in Dhaka.

"Their spinners bowled well, really well after Adam got us off to a flying start," Ponting said.

"Lucky we had Mike Hussey and some good tailender batsmen to get across the line.

"They put us on the backfoot a little bit. Who knows, it might have been a different game if we didn't get off to such a flying start."

Man of the match Gilchrist has turned his batting form around during the tour of Bangladesh and said the team just wanted one more limited overs win to seal the three-match series.

"It has been really hard work for everything we have done, with both bat and ball it has been very satisfying to have achieved what we have achieved," he said.

"If we can win one more of these games that is the series and that is our goal."

Gilchrist was in a particularly savage mood even by his standards and registered his fifty off just 28 balls before Razzak led his team's fightback by trapping the dashing left-hander in front with the total on 96.

Such was the rate of knots that Gilchrist was going that opening partner Simon Katich (18) was on 14 at the time.

Michael Clarke (16), who had 13 stitches in the back of his head due to an accident at the team's hotel pool, came in early and Katich exited just four runs later.

Australia's innings looked a little wobbly when Andrew Symonds (0) was trapped in front and the tourists were not out of the woods 24 runs later when Ponting (14) was caught on his crease for Razzak's third scalp.

Hussey and Clarke dug in but a mix-up saw Clarke run out and he punched his bat in frustration at his partner's indecision with the tally on 155.

The West Australian kept his cool in the boiling conditions but Brad Hogg (7) had a brain explosion by holing out some 22 runs short of the target off a rank full toss.

Lee reinforced his status as the man for getting Australia out of sticky situations as he and Hussey guided Australia to the win.

The tourists had been keen to avoid any uprisings from the locals following the scare in the opening Test in Dhaka.

They found the hosts to be more than charitable early on with a reckless batting display setting up a modest total for Australia as the Tigers lost their last five wickets for 24.

Opening bowlers Brett Lee (2-34 off eight overs) and Nathan Bracken (2-30 off eight overs) made the early inroads before spinner Brad Hogg (3-38 off 10 overs) stopped Bangladesh gaining any real momentum.

The match was particularly useful for World Cup aspirants Dan Cullen (0-36 off ten overs) and Mitchell Johnson (1-34 off seven overs) as they enjoyed confidence-boosting performances in national colours.

Debutant Cullen dried up the runs during the middle of the innings while Johnson claimed his first international scalp by knocking out Khaled Mashud's leg stump.

The Australian team wore black arm bands out of respect following the passing of former South Australian Cricket Association chief executive Barry Gibbs.

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