Danny Byrne at Mackey, deploying this title: “Eighteen wickets fall in an extraordinary first day in Mackay”
The sponsors would have you believe my 88th Test match ground was called the Great Barrier Reef Arena. Everywhere else it is simply Harrup Park and that will do for me. The queue for entry was already over 100 metres long when I arrived two hours before the start of play. The gates were not opened until 8.30 am after which a Steward walked down the line inviting anyone without bags to join an “Express” line. So, after patiently waiting in a queue for half an hour, nearly 200 people were allowed jump ahead of me from further back down the line and potentially get the best positions or grab the few seats available. They wouldn’t even allow this in India. In fact, they couldn’t allow it in India as there wouldn’t be a queue for people with bags.
In the end it didn’t matter. I was hoping to grab a seat in the shade, but there didn’t appear to be any seats and there was certainly no shade. I looked enviously at those in the small Grandstand as I sat uncomfortably on the grass bank. Ten minutes before the toss and my right leg was already completely numb. I had to move. I saw a few benches directly under the scoreboard and headed off in that direction. I found a block of six rows of plastic seats in a hollow area between two small grass banks adjacent to the benches. The view was awful. It was like watching the game from underground, peaking up to get a view of the players’ boots. I had no choice. I needed a seat with back support and it was a relief to know I wouldn’t have to get my legs amputated before lunch.
Cummins won the toss and elected to bowl first claiming there might be some moisture in the pitch on the first morning. He hadn’t suddenly been bestowed with the wisdom of Solomon; he had probably looked out of the hotel window the previous evening and noticed it was pissing down. The local Aboriginal Dance troupe performed in front of an empty Grandstand while all the people in the General Admission area were unable to see anything due to all the cameras and commentators in the middle of the pitch. Renshaw had been selected in place of Weatherald as expected and for Bangladesh the left-arm fast bowler Shoriful Islam returned from injury to replace Ebadot Hossain.
Mitchell Starc opened the bowling from the Kippen Street End and Shadman was caught by Green in the gully off the first delivery (0 – 1). Tanzid was caught by Webster at third slip off the first ball of his next over and Shanto was lbw to the next delivery (9 – 3). Shanto called for a review and the ball was barely clipping the edge of leg stump, but the decision was upheld on umpire’s call. Mushfiqur survived the hat-trick ball, but Mominul was caught by Green in the gully in Starc’s third over (10 – 4). Webster dropped the easiest catch you will ever see as the ball looped to him off the the glove of Litton Das at third slip. It all happened in slow motion, and it looked like Webster was celebrating the wicket before he had caught the ball. It didn’t matter as Das was lbw to the next delivery following an astute review by the Australians (12 – 5).
Starc had figures of 4 – 2 – 4 – 5 at this stage and I asked the question on Whatsapp as to whether it was the fastest 5 – fer in the history of Test cricket. The answers came in thick and fast informing me that it wasn’t even Starc’s fastest 5 – fer in a Test match as the previous year he had taken 5 wickets from only 15 balls against the West Indies at Sabina Park. That was on Day Three in Jamaica and hence today’s effort is probably the fastest at the start of a Test match. It took all of 41 minutes and he overtook Dale Steyn to become the 10th highest wicket taker in Test history at the same time.
After the drinks interval Webster replaced Starc and Cummins bowled from the Bridge Road End. The bowling was accurate and only 8 runs came from the next 8 overs. Cummins eventually knocked back Mushfiqur’s middle stump (21 – 6) and Starc returned for another short spell 20 minutes before lunch. The score when the players left the field was 35 – 6 from 23 overs. It was a wonderful morning of Test match cricket. According to a stat someone sent me there have now been 5 occasions when a wicket has fallen to the first ball of a Test played in Australia and three of them have involved Mitchell Starc. The other two were in 1936 and 1894.
Hazlewood and Cummins bowled after the interval and Mehidy was soon caught low at third slip by Webster to give Cummins his second wicket. In the next over Mahmud flicked a delivery from Hazlewood straight to Lyon at leg slip (38 – 8). Taskin skied a delivery from Hazlewood and managed to get in the way preventing Hazlewood from completing the catch. The umpires decided it was accidental. In football it would have produced a yellow card. In cricket it was simply not out. In the next over Taskin skied the ball and was excellently caught by Renshaw above his head at mid-wicket (39 – 9). There were hoards of kids standing at the boundary fence trying to get an autograph from the ever-obliging Hazlewood fielding at deep fine leg. I couldn’t even see the field never mind the 22 yards between the stumps.
Shoriful smashed a few boundaries, and the Number 11 soon became the top scorer for Bangladesh. The tenth wicket put on 25 runs when the previous best was only worth 15. Cummins introduced Starc to the attack from the Bridge Road End for the first time and Shoriful was caught behind off his sixth delivery. Bangladesh was all out for 64 from 34 overs and Starc had figures of 10 – 2 – 12 – 6 and Cummins returned 3 – 25. The heavy roller was used between innings and Head and Renshaw walked out to bat at 1. 45 pm. Renshaw walked back again 15 minutes later caught at third slip by Tanzid off Taskin (22 – 1). Shoriful bowled Head with a ball that cut back in towards the stumps. Head was cramped for room and played on (40– 2). Labuschagne was next to go bowled around his legs by Shoriful to give the bowler two wickets in his first over. (41 – 3). A few more runs were added before Tea was taken after 10 overs with the score 50 – 3.
Smith played a lovely straight drive to Mahmud and for a while the runs started to flow freely. 10 came from an over from Mahmud and Green hit a couple of boundaries from Shoriful’s next over. The first 50 partnership of the match was completed from only 55 balls. Taijul replaced Mahmud to introduce spin for the first time in the 19th over. Smith was given out lbw to Shoriful when on 42 and immediately called for a review. The original decision was upheld on the umpire’s call with the ball barely hitting enough of the bail to convince me it would have been dislodged. As with Shanto in the first innings it seemed a harsh decision without enough evidence in my opinion to justify giving the batsman out. However, my scorebook said 118–4 and there was no way back for Smith once the red ink had entered a W on the page.
Green was fortunate when on 22 and Mahmud missed a difficult chance at deep fine leg off Shoriful. He took several boundaries off the quick bowlers and Mehidy was brought on to bowl some off spin as a result. Carey tried to take him on and charged down the wicket to his sixth delivery and miscued a drive straight to Mahmud at mid-on ( 145 – 5 ). It was a shocking shot in the circumstances. Webster was lbw to Shoriful playing down the wrong line ( 146 – 6 ) and Cummins was caught behind to his second ball (146 – 7). Shoriful had taken two wickets in an over for the second time and had overall figures of 5 – 31 from 9 overs. Mahmud replaced Mehidy after only one over and Shoriful bowled Starc with a beauty that beat the defensive push from the batsman to clip the top of off stump ( 148 – 8 ).
Before the Series began there were a lot of journalists calling for Green to be replaced because his batting wasn’t sufficiently reliable coming in at Number 5. In Darwin he was the most reliable of all the batters and here again he was proving his critics wrong. He completed his half century from 79 balls just before the close of play. Shoriful was brought back to bowl the final over of the day and Lyon successfully kept him out. Australia finished on 165 – 8 from 40 overs with an overall lead of 101. My ticket for the third day is in the luxury of the shaded Grandstand. Unfortunately, if the game continues to develop at the same rate tomorrow it could well be over after only two days.
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