Australia vs Bangladesh Test: 18 Wickets, Two Six-Fors and a Day That Refused to Make Sense

Bangladesh made 64. Australia lost eight wickets.

Mitchell Starc took six. Shoriful Islam took six. Eighteen wickets fell. Six batters made ducks. And somehow, after a day in which batting repeatedly resembled a health hazard, we still had a Test match.

Australia ended Day One of the second Test in Mackay at 165/8, leading Bangladesh by 101 runs. Cameron Green was unbeaten on 51 and Nathan Lyon had survived long enough to reach 10.

You might think Starc had settled the contest before lunch. He hadn’t. He had merely introduced the second left-armer.

STARC STARTS WITH THE FIRST BALL

Starc did not need time to understand the pitch. He struck with the first ball of the Test.

Shadman Islam followed one outside off stump and Cameron Green completed the catch at second slip. It was the fourth time Starc had taken a wicket with the opening delivery of a Test. Tanzid Hasan lasted two balls. Najmul Hossain Shanto lasted one. Mominul Haque made nine before edging to Green. Litton Das was trapped leg-before for another duck.

Bangladesh were 12/5. Starc had taken all five wickets in 22 deliveries. His opening spell read 6-2-5-5. Mushfiqur Rahim tried to dig in. He consumed 42 balls for five runs before Pat Cummins bowled him. Bangladesh reached lunch at 35/6 and lost Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Hasan Mahmud and Taskin Ahmed soon after the break.

At 39/9, they were four runs short of equalling their lowest Test total. Then Shoriful Islam walked in at No. 11. He cut Cummins for four to take Bangladesh level with 43. He struck two more boundaries, added 25 with Taijul Islam and somehow became his team’s top-scorer with 14.

Starc returned, found Shoriful’s edge and completed figures of 6/12 from 10 overs. Bangladesh were all out for 64 in exactly 34 overs, their fourth-lowest Test total. Shoriful reportedly became only the 13th No. 11 to top-score in a completed Test innings. His day was about to become even stranger.

THE NO. 11 RETURNS WITH THE BALL

Australia began their reply needing only 65 to take the lead. That sounds easy, doesn’t it?

This pitch had other plans. Taskin Ahmed removed the recalled Matt Renshaw for eight. Shoriful then entered the attack and needed only two balls to strike. Travis Head dragged one onto his stumps for 22. Marnus Labuschagne followed for four. He moved too far across his crease, the ball deflected off his pad and rolled into leg stump.

Australia were 41/3. At tea, they had reached 50/3. The lead remained 14 runs away. Steve Smith and Green initially restored order. Smith began driving with authority, Green settled into another patient innings and the pair carried Australia beyond 100.

For a while, the Test almost began to resemble a normal game of cricket. Shoriful fixed that. He trapped Smith leg-before for 42. The decision survived review on umpire’s call and Australia were 118/4. Alex Carey briefly accompanied Green before charging Mehidy Hasan Miraz and skying a catch to mid-on for five.

Then Shoriful took over again. Beau Webster was pinned leg-before first ball. Pat Cummins gloved a short delivery to Litton Das without scoring. Mitchell Starc, the man who had destroyed Bangladesh hours earlier, walked out to face the bowler now doing the same to Australia. Shoriful angled one into the left-hander, beat the outside edge and clipped off stump. Starc made one. Shoriful had 6/31. Australia had slipped from 118/3 to 148/8. Starc had handed Bangladesh the wreckage. Shoriful had handed it straight back.

GREEN REFUSES TO JOIN THE PROCESSION

One Australian batter kept refusing to disappear.

Green had scored a century in the second innings in Darwin, although it could not prevent Bangladesh from completing a historic nine-wicket victory. According to Cricket Australia, he batted for almost five hours for that hundred.

Mackay demanded the same patience. Green arrived at 41/3 and watched Smith, Carey, Webster, Cummins and Starc depart around him. He defended when Shoriful attacked the stumps, left carefully outside off and punished the deliveries that allowed him room.

The century was probably beyond reach. Australia were running out of batters too quickly. So, Green settled for survival. Lyon joined him after the eighth wicket and did something most batters had found surprisingly difficult: he remained at the crease. Together, they carried Australia to stumps. Green completed his second consecutive score above 50 and ended unbeaten on 51. Lyon reached 10 not out. Australia held a 101-run lead. It was substantial in the context of a match where 18 wickets had already fallen, although two wickets in the first few overs on Day Two could still bring Bangladesh back into the contest. Yes, the team dismissed for 64 still had a route back. That was the kind of day it had been.

Day One ended with Australia ahead, Bangladesh alive and Mackay wondering what else this Test might possibly produce.