Bangladesh were bowled out for 64, and by stumps Australia had lost eight wickets too

Mackay’s first Test match produced 18 wickets on its opening day. Bangladesh were bowled out for 64 in 34 overs, then bowled well enough that Australia closed the day at 165 for 8, a lead of 101 and nowhere near the position they had looked set for an hour earlier.

Mitchell Starc took 6 for 12. Shoriful Islam took 6 for 35. Same pitch, same day, about six hours apart.

Starc needed 22 balls for five wickets

Pat Cummins won the toss and bowled, having chosen to bat in Darwin. The decision took one ball to look right. Starc had Shadman Islam caught at gully, Green taking it low, off the opening delivery of the match. It was the fourth time Starc has begun a Test with a wicket, after Dimuth Karunaratne, Rory Burns and Yashasvi Jaiswal. Shadman became only the second Bangladesh opener to go first ball of a Test, joining Hannan Sarkar, who managed it three times.

Tanzid Hasan edged to Beau Webster in the slips for nought, a second consecutive duck for a batter who had scored a century in the Darwin Test. Najmul Hossain Shanto was given lbw next ball and reviewed it, and ball tracking had the delivery clipping leg stump, so umpire’s call kept the decision with Starc. Mushfiqur Rahim survived the hat-trick delivery. Mominul Haque then edged low to Green’s left in the gully, and Green took it diving.

Starc’s fifth came when Litton Das was given not out lbw and Australia reviewed, ball tracking finding leg stump halfway up. It was one ball after Webster had dropped Litton at slip. That took Starc 22 deliveries, quick enough to be the second-fastest five-wicket haul of his career and not quick enough to beat his own record: 15 balls against West Indies in Jamaica in 2025, still the fastest in Test history.

Bangladesh were 12 for 5, their lowest score at the fall of the fifth wicket in a Test innings. Four of their top six were out for ducks. Somewhere in there, Starc went past Dale Steyn’s 439 Test wickets and into tenth on the all-time list.

The lower order did the scoring

Bangladesh reached 35 for 6 at lunch, which counted as a recovery. Cummins had Mushfiqur playing through bat and pad after 42 balls, then removed Mehidy Hasan Miraz, who at No. 7 became the first batter in the innings to reach double figures. Josh Hazlewood had Hasan Mahmud caught at leg gully. Cummins finished with 3 for 25.

The last five wickets added 52, more than twice what the top five had managed between them. Shoriful, batting at No. 11, top-scored with 14. Three late boundaries from him and Taijul Islam pushed Bangladesh past 43, which remains their lowest Test total, made against West Indies in 2018. The 64 is their fourth lowest.

Shoriful answered with six of his own

Then Australia batted, and the pitch that had made Bangladesh look hopeless started doing the same to them. Taskin Ahmed had Matt Renshaw, back in the side after Jake Weatherald’s six-Test stint ended, caught at slip for eight in the third over. Shoriful, playing his first match of the series after a hamstring injury, had Travis Head chopping on with his second ball, the third time in three innings Head has got out that way. Two balls into his next over he bowled Marnus Labuschagne off the thigh pad for four.

Steven Smith and Cameron Green put on 77 for the fourth wicket and pushed the game back Australia’s way after tea. Smith hit Hasan Mahmud for two fours to start the last session, went after Shoriful, then took two more off Taijul in consecutive overs. On 42, he was shuffling across when Shoriful nipped one back off the seam, and the review showed the ball clipping off stump. Umpire’s call, this time in Bangladesh’s favour.

Australia then lost five wickets for 30 runs in 7.2 overs. Mehidy had Alex Carey caught at mid-on off a jabbed shot that went straight up. Shoriful trapped Webster lbw, had Cummins gloving a short one to Litton in the same over, and later bowled Starc with another seamer that moved back in.

Green was still there at stumps on 51 not out from eight boundaries, which on this surface was worth considerably more than the number suggests. He made a century in Darwin as well.

A draw here wins Bangladesh the series

This is a two-match series, and Bangladesh lead it. They were bowled out for 54 by a Cricket Australia XI in a warm-up the week before the first Test, then bowled Australia out twice in Darwin and won by nine wickets, chasing 57 before tea on the fourth day. It was their first Test victory in Australia, in their third attempt across 23 years, and Hasan Mahmud took nine wickets in the match.

So the arithmetic at the Great Barrier Reef Arena is not what a 64 all out would normally suggest. Australia have to win to square the series. Bangladesh need only avoid defeat, and they go into day two 101 behind with two Australian wickets still standing.

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