Australia vs Bangladesh 1st Test: Brace for a Sunday Thriller as Darwin Test Hangs on 67 Runs, Six Wickets

DARWIN: Sixty-seven runs. For Bangladesh, they are a cushion. For Australia, they are an obstacle. And somewhere inside those 67 runs could lie the fate of a Test that has turned the usual Australia-at-home script on its head.

At stumps on Day 3 in Darwin, Australia were 161/4 in their second innings, still 67 runs behind Bangladesh after the visitors had piled up 426 in response to the hosts' 198. Six Australian wickets remain. Bangladesh need them. Australia need time. And both dressing rooms know that the first session on Sunday could determine who controls what remains of this Test.

Mehidy Hasan Miraz has already drawn Bangladesh's battle line. “We must own the first session on day four,” he said. Australia's Josh Hazlewood has drawn another. “The win is still definitely in our mind.”

Same Test. Same morning. Two very different calculations.

BANGLADESH CAN SMELL IT

Few would have expected Bangladesh to be in this position when the Test began.

Australia were bowled out for 198 in their first innings, Hasan Mahmud ripping through the batting order with 6/55. Bangladesh then did something even more damaging: they didn't merely take a lead, they built one large enough to change the geometry of the match.

Tanzid Hasan's historic 101, the first Test century by a Bangladesh batter in Australia, led the way. Captain Najmul Hossain Shanto contributed 84 before Miraz and the lower order made Australia toil. Miraz's 65 helped Bangladesh reach 426. The lead: 228 runs.

Australia had a mountain in front of them. Hasan then returned and started removing pieces from it. Jake Weatherald went for a duck. Travis Head followed for 17. Australia were wobbling before Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith began the repair job. Labuschagne made 31. Smith reached 44. Neither survived. Taijul Islam removed Labuschagne before Miraz dismissed Smith, leaving Australia four down and still well behind.

Cameron Green, unbeaten on 43, and Alex Carey, 19 not out, eventually took Australia to stumps without further damage. They will return on Sunday morning knowing exactly what Bangladesh want to do to them.

Miraz isn't hiding the plan. “We are playing on a good wicket so all we want to do is bowl in the right areas. We have to work hard for each wicket,” he said. Bangladesh, he stressed, don't necessarily need to wipe Australia out immediately. They need to break them. “If we can take at least three or four wickets within these [67] runs, then we won't have a difficult target coming up.” That is the equation. Imagine Australia reaching parity seven or eight wickets down. Bangladesh would be staring at the possibility of chasing a small fourth-innings target and completing one of their most significant Test victories away from home.

But there is another dressing room doing the maths. And Australia haven't surrendered anything yet.

HAZLEWOOD SEES ANOTHER TEST

Josh Hazlewood knows Australia are behind. He also knows Darwin's pitch may be beginning to offer something it didn't earlier. Variable bounce. A little up. A little down. And potentially, if Australia can somehow drag the game deep enough, a fifth-day surface on which defending a total may become considerably more interesting.

First, however, those 67 runs have to disappear. “Once we tick those [runs] off, hopefully we are still four down, and you can start to build the pressure,” Hazlewood said. That “still four down” is doing plenty of work. Green and Carey have to survive. Then Australia still have Beau Webster, Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc among those to come. The immediate objective is no longer complicated: erase the deficit without allowing Bangladesh to rip through the middle and lower order.

After that, Hazlewood believes the Test can change shape. “If we can bat deep into tomorrow and potentially even the whole day maybe, there are always opportunities to take 10 wickets on the final day if the wicket is a little bit up and down.”

Australia have history to overcome too.

A 228-run first-innings deficit would be the second-largest they have ever overcome to win a Test. Their greatest escape came against Sri Lanka in Colombo in 1992, when they trailed by 291 before eventually winning by 16 runs.

Darwin isn't Colombo. But Hazlewood isn't thinking about defeat yet. “So the win is still definitely in our mind, and always is pretty much.” If Australia need inspiration, they needn't look far beyond Hazlewood himself.

300, AND COUNTING

Day 3 could easily have belonged entirely to Bangladesh. Hazlewood refused to let it. With the visitors threatening to stretch their first-innings advantage even further, the Australian quick ripped through the tail and finished with 6/89. Along the way came a personal landmark: 300 Test wickets. Hazlewood became only the ninth Australian bowler to reach the milestone, joining current teammates Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon and Pat Cummins in the 300 club. Among Australians to reach 300 Test wickets, only Cummins, Glenn McGrath and Dennis Lillee have a better bowling average than Hazlewood's 24.02. It was a magnificent individual achievement.

Bangladesh still walked away with the better day. That tells you plenty about where this Test stands. Hazlewood's six wickets couldn't prevent 426. His 300th couldn't erase a 228-run deficit. And Australia's famous ability to fight from ugly positions hasn't yet changed the scoreboard. But neither have Bangladesh finished the job. Which brings everything back to Sunday morning.

IT ALL BOILS DOWN TO ONE SESSION

Miraz wants three or four wickets before Australia can wipe out those 67 runs. Hazlewood wants Green and Carey to erase them while keeping all six wickets intact.

Bangladesh see a manageable chase. Australia see a deteriorating pitch and the possibility of setting a target worth defending. Both scenarios remain alive. Only one can survive for long.

For three days, this Test has produced a historic Tanzid hundred, Hasan Mahmud's six-wicket demolition, a 228-run Bangladesh lead, Hazlewood's 300th Test wicket and an Australian fightback.

Now the arithmetic has become wonderfully small. 67 runs. Six wickets. One opening session. Darwin is about to find out which matters most.

(With inputs from ANI)