Mitchell Starc needed 22 balls for the first five and ten overs for the lot: Starc six wickets for 12 runs, and Bangladesh bowled out for 64 on the opening day of the second Test at Mackay. ESPNcricinfo’s Mohammad Isam reported that the innings lasted only 34 overs and was finished less than an hour into the second session — Bangladesh’s fourth-lowest total in Test cricket.
Pat Cummins won the toss at the Great Barrier Reef Arena, cricket’s newest Test venue, and bowled. Starc had Shadman Islam caught at gully by Cameron Green off the first ball of the match, the fourth time he has struck with the opening delivery of a Test, and had five wickets inside the seventh over. He finished with 6 for 12, passing Dale Steyn’s career tally of 439 Test wickets on the way, while Cummins took 3 for 25. Only the lower order resisted: the last five batters made 47 between them, No 11 Shoriful Islam top-scoring with 14.
How The Starc Six Wickets Unfolded
“Caught in the gully first ball! Starc does it again!” ran ESPNcricinfo’s ball-by-ball commentary of the opening wicket, before Tanzid Hasan edged to Beau Webster at second slip for a duck and captain Najmul Hossain Shanto fell lbw on umpire’s call next ball.
Bangladesh then answered. Shoriful, recalled in place of Ebadot Hossain, had Travis Head chopping on to his stumps for the third time in the series and bowled Marnus Labuschagne around his legs, while Taskin Ahmed had Matt Renshaw caught in the slips for eight. Renshaw was the change Australia made after Bangladesh’s nine-wicket win in Darwin, when they dropped Jake Weatherald. At tea Australia were 50 for three, still 14 behind, and Mackay’s first Test had already brought 13 wickets.
