Darwin Test Match: A Concise Summary of Day Two from an English Aficianado
Danny Byrne, whose title reads thus: “Tanzid’s brilliant maiden Test century puts Bangladesh in a wonderful position; Day 2 in Darwin.”
The seat row numbers in the Grandstand start with A as the top row and the most likely to offer shade. Naturally we bought seats for row P expecting it to be at the back and out of the sun. Lots of things are upside down here. The water appears to go down the sink in the wrong direction, the wickets are announced before the team totals, the ground floor is the first floor and so on. The only saving grace is that we all try to drive on the same side of the road.
Webster bowled the first over of the day from the McMillan Road End to allow Starc to switch ends. Cummins ran in from the Airport End and the two bowlers toiled away for 40 minutes without ever threatening Tanzid or Mominul. Starc used a review speculating he might have had Tanzid caught behind down the leg side and when Hazlewood and Webster took over the bowling the batsmen continued to nonchalantly push towards attaining their respective half centuries. Tanzid brought up his maiden 50 from 102 balls in only his second Test. The drinks interval arrived and only 33 runs had been added in the first hour but crucially for Bangladesh no wickets had been lost.
Tanzid hit Webster for an impressive straight six to bring up the 100 partnership from 183 balls before Mominul was out for 49 attempting to hit Hazlewood through the covers and getting an edge to Carey ( 138 – 2 ). Lyon replaced Webster and Tanzid was almost caught when an edge bounced off Carey and landed just short of Smith at slip. Shanto and Tanzid increased the scoring rate, and Green bowled an over that conceded 10 runs. Two minutes before lunch the umpires decided to change the ball. The fourth umpire ambled out after sitting in an air-conditioned room all morning and the whole process took so long that lunch was eventually delayed by five minutes. Is it any wonder we sometimes manage only 22 overs in a session.
The first delivery with the changed ball was hit straight to the long-on fence and the score when lunch was finally taken was 181 – 2 from 51 overs. 85 runs had been added for the loss of only one wicket from 27 overs in the morning session. Bangladesh was 17 runs in arrears at this stage. It was an excellent morning for the visitors involving simple uncomplicated sensible Test match batting. After the interval the PA system played the song Great Southern Land before the next session of play got underway. Hazlewood and Starc opened the bowling and Tanzid took 8 from the first over. Only 74 balls were required to bring up the 50-partnership. Most of the fast bowlers sent down a few overs in the next hour before Lyon was finally introduced into the attack from the Airport End.
Almost everyone in the crowd missed the Richie Benaud moment when the scoreboard showed 222 – 2. I was thinking about all four of the first four Bangladesh batsmen being left-handers and when that might have last been witnessed in a Test match. Hopefully someone reading this will be able to do the research. Tanzid was getting impatient in the 90’s as he got closer to a possible maiden Test century. A lofted drive dropped just short of the fielder at long-off when he was on 96. Shanto meanwhile completed his half century from 74 balls, but Tanzid wasn’t going to be outdone and four balls later he punched the ball to long-off, this time all along the ground. It was a wonderful moment for the 25-year-old in his second Test. Previously he had scored 5 centuries in 26 First Class matches at an average of 39.7. This was an enormous step up in terms of the opposition and his 188-ball effort was almost faultless. The crowd gave him an extended standing ovation with virtually everyone participating. The umpires sensibly called for an early drinks break.
Unfortunately for Bangladesh his innings came to an end nine balls later when he tried to hit Lyon for a straight six and was excellently caught by Starc diving full length after running 25 metres to intercept the ball. The crowd obliged with another standing ovation with the score 231 – 3. The next man in was Musfiqur Rahim, a veteran of 103 Test matches and this his first in Australia. Shanto hit Lyon for a huge six over deep mid-wicket and Travis Head was called upon by Cummins to send down a few overs. This proved to be an enormously popular decision if perhaps fuelled by the amount of beer already consumed in the 30 degrees winter heat. There were only 6 overs to be bowled before the new ball was available and some of the serious Australian bowlers were beginning to look a little tired.
Ten runs were taken from Lyon’s next over and the 50-partnership between Rahim and Shanto came up from 67 balls. Tea was taken with the score 286 – 3 from 78 overs with the overall lead up to 88. It was another fantastic session for Bangladesh with 105 runs scored for the loss of only one wicket from 27 overs. It was like watching Bangladesh playing against Ireland with the bonus of me not caring how many runs Bangladesh might eventually score. Labuschagne was brought on to bowl some filth immediately after the interval. The ball flew all over the place preventing the batsmen from scoring which must have been part of Cummins’ devious plan. The speed gun clocked him at 7 – 10 Km per hour slower than Hazlewood. Perhaps it was just a bit of fun before the real action began with the new ball.
Shanto was caught at second slip by Smith off Hazlewood, the ball perhaps bouncing a little higher as the batsman pushed forward ( 297 – 4 ). Starc had Das caught at second slip soon after for a duck ( 306 – 5 ). Cummins replaced Hazlewood and Rahim gave Smith his third consecutive catch at second slip enabling him to equal Joe Root’s record of 218 catches by an outfield player ( 308 – 6 ). The Australian bowlers were pumped up and looking to clean up the tail. Mehidy Hasan Miraz wasn’t going to allow that to happen. Over the years this tricky off spinner has improved his batting to such an extent as he is now officially classed as an all-rounder. During the final two hours of play today he produced a master class in how to bat in difficult circumstances in a Test match.
Mehidy and Mahmud frustrated the Australian bowlers for 25 overs until the close of play. They added only 43 runs in all this time, but that really didn’t matter. The Australian bowlers were so disheartened and frustrated in the end that Labuschagne was given a further 3 overs before the close of play. The last ball of the day resulted in a difficult chance being spilled by Green low in the gully off Labuschagne, but Mehidy survived having turned down several singles to keep the strike and protect his partner when other players would have run to the non-strikers end at the first opportunity. The score at the close of play was 351 – 6 from 110 overs. The Bangladesh lead was up to 153 and it had been another brilliant day for the visiting side.
