Key events
29th over: Australia 132-4 (Green 34, Carey 1) He’s purring now! Two metres of batting textbook, as Green steps into a Hasan length ball and crunches the cover drive for four. Then waits back on a ball that’s not even full, it’s a very decent length, but he plays it on the up, opens the face slightly, and deflects the good delivery behind point for another boundary.
28th over: Australia 124-4 (Green 26, Carey 1) A thick inside edge from Carey, into his pads rather than stumps, and the one run gets him off the mark. Then Green gets one off the top edge, and it just falls short of Hasan! Shoriful almost has a fourth, a half-hearted pull from Green that carries most of the way to the long leg fielder. Had Hasan charged in immediately, he might have got there, but it would have been hard to judge how far that was likely to carry, so early in its trajectory. It also gets through the fielder on the bounce for four.
27th over: Australia 118-4 (Green 21, Carey 0) Shanto immediately gets Hasan Mahmud back on, pace from both ends. Green resumes his monkish occupation.
26th over: Australia 118-4 (Green 21, Carey 0) Imagine if this had been Bangladesh’s performance bowling first. They would have been over the moon. Still chasing the game here though, trailing by 54 already.
WICKET! Smith lbw Shoriful 42, Australia 118-4
Huge slice of luck for Bangladesh! Left-arm over is Shoriful, fast and shaping the ball slightly back into the right-hander. Slightly, not a lot. That means that this length ball, hitting Smith in line with the off stump, is still trending away with the angle, because it hasn’t shaped that much. But the umpire’s finger goes up on the field, which means that Smith’s review only needs to show umpire’s call. Which it does, the ball-tracking suggesting that this delivery might have clipped the very top corner of the off bail. I’d think most umpires wouldn’t give that, had they seen a replay, given the angle across Smith, but watching live, the line probably looked a bit straighter given how far he’d moved across his stumps. Shoriful, into the team after missing Darwin, has his third.
25th over: Australia 117-3 (Smith 42, Green 21) Smith keeps rolling. Gets a short one from Taijul and belts the pull shot from the spinner through midwicket. Inelegant but effectively violent.
24th over: Australia 111-3 (Smith 36, Green 21) Another overstep from Taskin, his fifth for the day. Not as bad a mistake as the short wide ball that Smith scorches for four. It was surprising that he didn’t ton up in Darwin, the way he looked in that first innings, but he looks even more in control here. A big score would get him past 11,000 career runs as well.
23rd over: Australia 104-3 (Smith 31, Green 20) Taijul continues, with both Australian bats driving hard down the ground where possible. Single, single.
22nd over: Australia 102-3 (Smith 30, Green 19) Just a single from Taskin’s over’ Australia don’t need to do anything more than this slow build. They’re into the lead and it’s only day one.
21st over: Australia 101-3 (Smith 29, Green 19) Inside-out cover drive from Smith, snapping his wrists through the wider ball from the left-arm spinner. Two there. Repeats the dose from the last ball of the over, though only for one run with a cover sweeper in place.
20th over: Australia 98-3 (Smith 26, Green 19) Taskin sits in, outside the off stump, and Green is happy to let the over pass by. Patience has rarely been one of his problems.
19th over: Australia 98-3 (Smith 26, Green 19) Spin into play, Taijul Islam bowls his first over. Just the one run to Green late in the piece.
18th over: Australia 97-3 (Smith 26, Green 18) Taskin is back for Shoriful Islam, who took two wickets in his first over. Taskin the right-armer hangs in the channel outside Smith’s off stump. A couple of leg byes the only score from the over until the final ball, which Smith clips for two.
17th over: Australia 93-3 (Smith 24, Green 18) It’s been a very quiet period from Cam Green, but now he gets into his work against Hasan Mahmud. The first boundary is outside leg stump, one he has to reach for to clip away, but he’s got the wingspan to do that. The next is a meaty pull to a vacant mid-wicket.
16th over: Australia 81-3 (Smith 23, Green 7) Boundaries rolling now, Smith cracks a pull from Shoriful square on the leg side. Well into his work, he follows up with another straight drive, this one more on the up than the previous, but gets his elbow up high to send it back past the bowler.
15th over: Australia 73-3 (Smith 15, Green 7) Into the lead go the Aussies, after a couple of singles, then a bizarrely swinging ball that wrong-foots the keeper Litton Das. He goes galloping towards the leg side to intercept a swerving ball, only to see it go back the other way, a misjudgement by the keeper overcommitting to the first movement. Hasan Mahmud just stands at looks at his teammate, bemused. Four runs off the bat follow, though in lucky fashion, with Green slicing through a vacant squarer part of the cordon.
14th over: Australia 63-3 (Smith 14, Green 2) Shoriful keeps bounding in, and Smith and Green nearly manage to conjure a run out. Stop, start, stop, start, and eventually a single, just pushed out towards cover. That’s the first ball of the over. The sixth, off the thigh pad of Smith to the fine leg fence, and Australia have nearly caught up on the scoreboard.
13th over: Australia 58-3 (Smith 14, Green 1) Schponk! Overpitched from Hasan, and Smith digs out a straight drive back past the bowler for four, dead straight. Smith is chuntering away to himself throughout. Then nearly gets himself out, misreading the bounce while pulling, getting a bottom edge past his off stump for four.
“Can’t watch right now. Did they show on DRS the lbw shout that Shanto eventually decide not to take?” writes Ashraf. “Love from a Tigerlander.”
Tigerland! I didn’t see ball-tracking on that one, but it looked high on first viewing. Nothing to suggest they should have referred it.
12th over: Australia 50-3 (Smith 6, Green 1) Ducking back in from Shoriful! The lanky left-armer makes Green look lumbering as the ball bends into his pads, but not bending enough from over the wicket. Then another appeal as Green misses a drive outside off, though the ball was going well wide of the bat, which clipped the ground instead.
11th over: Australia 50-3 (Smith 6, Green 1) Hasan Mahmud picking up the duties after the tea break, and he meets a watchful Smith first up, blocking out an over.
Tea – Australia 50 for 3, trailing Bangladesh by 14
Bangladesh have been absolutely smashed in the first two sessions, but at least for the time being, they’re still in the game. Australia three down and not yet in the lead. Bangladesh will need to keep piling on the pressure and taking wickets in short order to stop this match getting away.
10th over: Australia 50-3 (Smith 6, Green 1) Shoriful bowls a less eventful over than his dual-wicket effort last time around. Smith clips three runs, then a couple of singles follow, so the previous match’s century-maker Cam Green is off the mark.
9th over: Australia 45-3 (Smith 2, Green 0) Taskin Ahmed carrying on, in a busy over. A couple of no-balls, three in fact, either side of a huge lbw appeal, while Smith starts chirping the fielders about whether they should review, and the umpire comes down and gives Smith a telling off. Not your place to speak to the fielding team about their reviews, seems to be the message, one Test match too late.
8th over: Australia 41-3 (Smith 1, Green 0) So it’s already Cameron Green to the middle to join Steve Smith.
WICKET! Labuschagne b Shoriful 4, Australia 41-3
What is going on here? Another deflection, another bowled! Shoriful has flipped the momentum of this match around, at least for a moment. Labuschagne just stops and stares. This is not good bowling, and not good batting. Leg-stump line, but Labuschagne has wandered so far across his stumps that he might take 20 years to get back to Ithaca. He’s not in line with the ball that arrows in at his thigh pad, then it deflects off the under edge of that pad and goes down into the ground, then into leg stump. It wouldn’t have done anything dangerous if he hadn’t moved so far across. No control, no confidence, and Labuschagne opens both arms and gestures at his stumps as though they’ve created the problem rather than him. The look of a Test career slipping between those outstretched hands.
WICKET! Head b Shoriful 22, Australia 40-2
The other opener goes! Shoriful Islam’s second ball. The left-armer thumps in a low full toss on the pads first ball, then gets the next to jag back in, from the seam into the thigh pad, and Head trying to chop that ball away with a slightly angled bat behind square can only drag it on to his stumps for the third time this series.
7th over: Australia 40-1 (Head 22, Labuschagne 4) Boundaries keep coming, this time it’s Head from Taskin, worked away off the pads through square. Then a huge appeal from a non-event, Taskin getting the ball to go past the outside edge, but we can’t hear anything through the stump mic. Maybe a slight sound as bat brushes pad, but nobody else can hear it bar the bowler and a couple of fielders. Not out, no review.
6th over: Australia 35-1 (Head 17, Labuschagne 4) Hasan again, and Head again throws the bat at width and sends it flying over the catching cordon.
5th over: Australia 30-1 (Head 13, Labuschagne 4) Taskin now, the early wicket-taker, with Labuschagne in his sights. Plenty of pressure on Australia’s No3, even if he could not possibly have arranged an easier match situation. Labuschagne reaches for a ball outside off stump, edges it, but very soft hands take it down and through the cordon for four rather than screaming into the cordon at catching height.
Geoff Lemon
4th over: Australia 26-1 (Head 13, Labuschagne 0) Thanks JP, hello all. I have to say, I was not expecting to be logging on for the second innings of the Test match halfway through Day 1. But these things happen from time to time. Hasan continues, Travis Head slashes a boundary over the cordon when given width.
WICKET! Renshaw c Tanzid b Taskin 8 (Australia 22-1)
Jonathan Howcroft
This outfield is getting very quick. Head adds four to his total with a nondescript thick edge, then Renshaw leans into the swing into his pads to work a couple of twos behind square. Taskin adjusts and moves from over to around the wicket to the two left-handers and immediately gets his reward! Renshaw again tries to work with the angle but closes his bat face too soon and sends a leading edge to second slip! Another Australian opener comes and goes.
And with that I shall hand you over to Geoff Lemon.
3rd over: Australia 22-1 (Head 9)
2nd over: Australia 13-0 (Head 4, Renshaw 4) Mahmud shares the new ball and Head nudges his way off strike first ball. What can Renshaw do? He looks compact, playing with a straight bat, keeping his blade close to his pad, and he nudges with soft hands along the ground through the gully to get off the mark with a boundary. A confident, uncomplicated start from Australia’s latest opener.
Returning to the exploits of the greatest No 11s in Test history, John Goldstein was in Nottingham for Ashton Agar’s memorable 98 in 2013. “I was at Trent Bridge for the 5th day. The atomic levels of macramé strands that needed untangling in Broad’s laces just before lunch was hilarious. Unlike the Steve Finn dropped catch. I nearly had a sense of humour failure.”
1st over: Australia 8-0 (Head 3, Renshaw 0) Bangladesh’s innings started with a wicket, Australia’s with four byes down the legside! Those extras were the product of some swing from Taskin Ahmed, bowling his right-arm fast-medium from over the wicket. He readjusts well and rips one through Head a couple of deliveries later, getting some bounce off a length that threatens the under-edge of a pull shot. Even better next ball – fuller length, beating the outside edge of a prod with the opener trapped to the crease. Head punches his way through midwicket to get off the mark, then benefits from a misfield at leg gully to rotate strike. What can Renshaw do? Ooooh, play and miss outside off from a jaffa! An eventful opening over!
The two teams are back out in the middle. Travis Head will take strike. Matt Renshaw will enjoy proceedings from the non-striker’s end.
Right, over to Australia’s batters, and Matt Renshaw in particular. With his strong frame, Don Mattingly sideburns, and no-longer-for-charity dirty mo, the Queenslander looks like the composite Australian male 30 year old.
“When was the last time the number XI scored as many as the top 5 combined?” asks Rowan Sweeney. Fortunately for me an answer to that one came quickly (I’m assuming the answer, but I don’t have the time to confirm) because it was that same innings featuring England’s Saqib Mahmood in 2022. And it encompases the top six – not just top five.
England’s top order that day: Alex Lees 31, Zak Crawley 7, Joe Root 0, Dan Lawrence 8, Ben Stokes 2, Jonny Bairstow 0 … Saqib Mahmood 49.
Adding to the historical interest of that innings, Mahmood’s runs came in a 90-run last wicket partnership with Jack Leach (41*) that lasted 36.2 overs.
Bangladesh 64 all out
That is what coming back down to earth looks like. More bounce, more movement in the air and off the seam, and better catching from Australia, and Bangladesh drop from the high of Darwin to the dismay of Mackay.
Starc did most of the damage, Cummins chipped in, Hazlewood deserved more than his solitary dismissal. Those ageing pacemen can now look forward to a long rest in the Queensland sunshine.
WICKET! Shoriful c Carey b Starc 14 (Bangladesh 64)
Starc is recalled to finish the job – and after a few swings and misses he finds the edge of Shoriful’s bat. Bangladesh all out for 64 in exactly 34 overs. Starc ends with 6/12 from 10 overs. Shoriful top scores with 14 from No 11.