Starc’s 10-wicket haul powers Australia to innings-and-51-run win over Bangladesh

Mackay: Mitchell Starc’s 10-wicket match haul, backed by three wickets apiece from Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon, powered Australia to an innings-and-51-run victory over Bangladesh in Mackay, levelling the series in record time.

Australia’s salvation came in the form of a third two-day Test in the past seven in the country, with the weekend victory made possible by a Bangladesh batting unit. Australia got rid of their earlier defeat in Darwin by putting on a massive innings and 51-run total, Bangladesh adding only 95 to their first-innings 64.

A team had not before been all out for double figures twice in a Test match in the twenty-one years up to that point; the bowlers achieved a victory so complete that Australia’s attack seemed almost embarrassed during the onslaught on Sunday, which revealed the weakness of Bangladesh on a bouncy yet level wicket, and Travis Head even wrote his name on the boundary of the Great Barrier Reef Arena after the penultimate wicket was dismissed.

Starc was the focus of the demolition effort; after taking six wickets in the first innings he took four more in the second and thus finished with 10-51, which was his best performance in a home Test. Cummins took 3-10 from the same number of overs and Lyon ended with 3-25, including the last two wickets of the match which were obtained from three balls after tea.

The 750-ball Test was the shortest witnessed in Australia in nearly a century, beating both of the two-day Ashes Tests held in Perth and Melbourne last summer as well as the 2022-23 Gabba Test played against South Africa in terms of duration.

On Sunday morning Australia were already in the match with a lead of 101 runs and increased that to 146 when their last two wickets put in more than a quarter (62) of their total runs. Cameron Green continued his outstanding series by scoring the highest individual score of the match, which was 67, following on from his 104 the previous week.

Green’s most recent decisive wicket fell only when Shoriful Islam delivered a fierce in-swinger which disbalanced the tall right-hander. Shoriful’s figures of 7-48 represented the best performance by a foreign bowler since Curtly Ambrose’s 7-25 in Perth in 1993, but it was in vain as Australia’s all-out score of 210 became the lowest total to have led to an innings victory in 80 years.

When the new ball was presented to Starc before lunch there was a feeling of anticipation among the locals who were sitting in the seats on the eastern hill of Harrup Park. Although Bangladesh’s openers managed to avoid becoming his 29th victim of the first over, the early wave of wickets was inevitable.

Shadman Islam was sent off when facing the left-arm bowler for the second time in 24 hours, and Mominul Haque was bowled to give a golden duck, thus leaving Najmul Shanto exposed to Starc’s second hat-trick delivery in two days.

The captain of Bangladesh avoided a king pair but concluded an otherwise creditable tour with a very poor dismissal, being caught at long-off after he was tricked by a delivery from Nathan Lyon which, due to the winter breeze, was pushed too far inside his line of sight for him to hit it over cover.

Starc finished off his second catch with both hands when Tanzid Hasan pulled Cummins to long-leg. Tanzid, who had scored a century in Darwin, then recorded his third score in the single digits since hitting that ton in the first innings.

Litton Das’s miserable tour without any runs went on when Starc got him out for the third time in a row without scoring, and Cummins then sped up Bangladesh’s push to leave with a highly unstoppable performance.

Lyon then had to carry on and finish off the collapse. He took the final two wickets of the match within three deliveries after tea, the second of these ending Bangladesh’s resistance and thus securing Australia’s victory by 51 runs.

The outcome marked a dramatic recovery for Australia following their historic loss in Darwin, due to Starc’s 10-51 and once again the strong showing from the pace attack, which brought the series back on par.

IANS