Danny Byrne, … presenting an article entitled ““Grit and determination keep Bangladesh on track for a possible famous victory; Day 3 in Darwin”
In 2006 the Australians played a Test match in Fatullah and won despite conceding a lead of over 150 in the first innings. In that game Bangladesh batted first and scored 427 with Nafees getting 138 and Stuart MacGill taking 8–108 from 33.3 overs while Warne went for 0-112 from 20 overs. Australia made 269 in reply with Gilchrist scoring 144 batting at 6. The first innings lead was 158 in favour of Bangladesh. The home team scored only 148 in the second innings and the Australians knocked up 307 for 7 to win by 3 wickets with Ponting as captain scoring 118 not out. Most Australians I have spoken with in the ground are completely convinced that a similar recovery will take place in Darwin. Many of them cannot contemplate that this great Australian side could possibly lose a five-day Test match to a country like Bangladesh. They need to wake up, and they need to wake up quickly.
The question I posed yesterday regarding the first four batsmen being left handers for Bangladesh is not as unusual in recent times as one might believe. At the Trent Bridge Test in Nottingham recently New Zealand had Latham, Conway, Nicholls and Ravindra as their top four and I was at the match and can now recollect commenting on the four left handers at the time. The fact that I’d completely forgotten this less than three months later is nothing unusual. By the middle of next week, I will have forgotten about the four-metre crocodile I saw three days before the Test match.
Play resumed with Bangladesh 351–6. Cummins bowled a maiden and Mehidy turned down a single to Hazlewood’s first delivery and was lbw to the second. The batsman called for a review and the ball was shown to be missing leg stump. In the next over Mahmud was lbw to Hazlewood and on this occasion the review was unsuccessful (354 –7). Starc replaced Cummins after half an hour, and Taijul clipped Hazlewood off his legs for an effortless six over square leg. Four balls later he was caught in the Gully by Green attempting a drive to give Hazlewood his fourth wicket (372 –8). Lyon replaced Hazlewood at the Airport End just before the drinks interval and 29 runs had been added in the first hour for the loss of two wickets from 12 overs.
Mehidy completed an outstanding half century from 117 balls. A proper tail ender’s pull shot from Taskin brought up the Bangladesh 400 and the next ball was also hit high to deep mid-wicket where it was badly dropped by Steve Smith of all people. Mehidy was dropped two balls later by Head running back from a conventional mid-wicket position, a much more difficult chance by comparison. The batsmen were living dangerously but somehow they survived throughout the next hour and Mehidy even had the nerve to hit the last ball of the session from Green way over Hazlewood’s head at deep long leg. At lunch the score was 417 – 8 with Mehidy 66 not out and the overall lead up to 219. 66 runs were added in the session for the loss of two wickets from only 23 overs.
In the first over after the break Mehidy was caught behind attempting an aggressive attacking shot. Hazlewood had 5 wickets in the innings and 300 in Test matches. Ebadot spanked Lyon into the Grandstand where a group of 60 – 70 vocal Bangladesh supporters had gathered. Shortly after he was caught behind to give Hazlewood yet another wicket. Bangladesh had scored an incredible 426 from 138 overs. The first innings lead was 228 and all the Australian commentators could talk about was the achievement of Hazlewood and his figures of 6 – 89. It was astonishing to observe as a neutral visitor. No mention at all was made of the Bangladesh achievement or the small matter of the 228-run deficit.
Australia began their second innings with the PA announcer believing they were in a run chase. Perhaps he wasn’t the only one as a lot of the younger people sitting near me appeared to know nothing about cricket and maybe couldn’t care as long as the cold beer cans kept appearing. I was amused by the constant reminders to drink responsibly and behave sensibly when the main Bar had a minimum purchase of four cans at a time. Weatherald played on in the second over with Mahmud inevitably the successful bowler (4 –1). Labuschagne was dropped by wicketkeeper Das when on 9 and then the batsmen settled down for a while. Nine runs came from Ebadot’s second over. Mahmud decided to change ends, and Head was bowled off another thick inside edge (37 –2).
Smith was almost run out attempting a crazy single to get off the mark to his first delivery. Shortly after he was given out caught behind but the review showed the bat hitting the ground and not the ball. Tea was taken with the score 51–2 from 17 overs. After the interval Labuschagne was bowled by a straight delivery from Taijul that he tried to hit to leg (73–3). Surely there must be another batsman somewhere in Australia who could be given a go at Number 3. Green got a thick inside edge to Taskin and was fortunate not to be bowled. Mehidy somehow managed to induce Smith into playing a false shot and as the ball looped up towards him he dived across the wicket to complete the caught and bowled (122 – 4). Maybe the headlines in the morning papers will no longer be all about Hazlewood I mused.
Green played sensibly for the rest of the day as indeed Smith had until his latest brain fade. Carey provided solid support and by the close of play the score had climbed to 161 –4 from 53 overs. 36 overs were possible in the two and a half hours after Tea with the spinners bowling 24 of them. The Australians are still 67 behind and will need to somehow score another 200 runs tomorrow to have any chance of winning this Test match. The crowd today was stated as 5,821 and hopefully there will be a large turn out on the fourth day. We had to buy more tickets on the internet this evening and with the knowledge of Row A being at the back of the Stand, we all hope Woods has bought tickets in the shade.
After writing the first draft of this report I needed to go to Woolworths to buy bottles of water for tomorrow and a few items for breakfast and lunch before it closed. The same woman I met in the lift 10 hours ago asked me how I had enjoyed the cricket as we descended towards the reception area. I cheerfully mumbled something about how much I enjoy watching competitive cricket before her husband stared at me with disbelief and blurted out “It was a fucking disaster”. It’s wonderful how two people can watch the same sporting event over a period of six and a half hours and come to a completely different conclusion.
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