Australia v Bangladesh, First Test, Day Four

Featuring the nets, towering twins and removing parenthetical

The Nets
Grade: C+

Heading into the ground yesterday, we saw Cameron Green in the nets. Weirdly, practising edging into his stumps but not dislodging the bail. As it turned out, this was an example of the kind of precision preparation one needs to succeed at the top level.

Upon arrival this morning, though, there was no sign of him in the nets, leaving us all completely unspoiled about what he had in store for us today.

A shame. I would have quite liked to have seen him standing (metaphorically and literally) tall in the nets, no other team mates willing to stay out there with him, raising his bat to a crowd desperate for any form of success.

Instead, as he played on for 104, it did make you wonder if maybe another morning’s preparation of deflecting the ball off the stump for four might have come in handy.

Towering Twins
Grade: C

Alex Carey batting at six made Australia’s position at the start of the day feel like they were in a worse position than what they actually were. (Not that they were in a good position, of course. It just wasn’t quite as bad as it seemed.)

Thankfully, Carey swiftly rectified this, caught behind off the bowling of Mehidy Hasan Miraz. His dismissal allowed Green to join forces with Beau Webster, part of an Australian plan to plot a fightback using nothing but raw height. (Explanation of joke: Cameron Green and Beau Webster are both very tall.)

And, of course, by ‘fightback’, I mostly just meant the avoidance of an innings defeat. But when Webster was bowled for five, becoming the first of the towering twins to fall (an inside job? perhaps), Green was joined by captain Pat Cummins, followed almost immediately by Mitchell Starc.

Funny, isn’t it, how whoever bats lower out of Starc and Cummins always scores more runs? And great leadership from Pat to go in earlier and bring out the best in Mitch. (Note: this stat about the pair’s relative batting results isn’t actually researched, but it feels right, and that’s what 98% of maths is about. (Or, y’know, it feels like that’s what 98% of maths is about.))

Removing Parentheticals
Grade: D-

Shortly before lunch, Australia reached 7/228 and, with it, a healthy dose of parity applause. A beautiful thing to see the counter-punching Australians take it to the might of Bangladesh. I mean, come on, a kangaroo taking on a tiger?! Not really a fair fight, is it?

After lunch, however, Starc was soon dismissed, with Green still twelve runs short of his first century on home soil. The tall-rounder rapidly sorted half that problem out with a pull shot for six, then, a short while later, tricked Nathan Lyon into diving for a scampered two to bring up the ton. Good giant puppy. Well batted.

Having safely guided Australia to a fifty-run lead, Green then got himself out, once again showing off his match awareness and faith in his bowlers. After all, Bangladesh were bowled out for 54 in their second innings against CAXI earlier in this tour. Are we supposed to believe that Australia’s much vaunted attack isn’t four runs better than the CAXI up-and-comers?

With Australia therefore now favourites to win this Test, Lyon and Hazlewood added a handful more runs just to rub salt into the Bangladesh wound, finally setting them a target of 57 for victory.

Weirdly, however, Bangladesh ran that down with nine wickets in hand, and therefore take a 1-0 lead in the series.

And, hey, remember all that talk about Australia’s 20 (maybe 21) Tests in the upcoming year? If they keep playing like this, I think it’s probably safe to remove the parenthetical.