2nd Test AUS v BAN @ Mackay, northern Queensland.
After having their collective noses rubbed in it, you would hope that the #1 ranked team would respond. And they did, sorta.
AUS won the toss and elected to bowl.
Dismissed BAN for 64
Scored 210
Dismissed BAN for 95.
Which is comprehensive enough, if they had scored 350.
Weatherall was replaced and Matt Renshaw restored to open. And fell cheaply.
Marnus failed. I don’t like Head going in at #1. Smudge played a nice cameo. Green did OK, but the tail fell mostly cheaply and quickly. Third top score was Lyon.
BAN’s 64 & 95 is the first time a team has been skittled for double figures twice in a Test in 21 years. Starc was devastating, taking his 4th “Test wicket with first ball of innings” and finishing with 10 for the match.
Australia’s all-out 210 proved the lowest total to underpin an innings victory in 80 years.
The 750-ball Test was the shortest seen in Australia in almost a century, briefer than last summer’s pair of two-day Ashes Tests in Perth and Melbourne, as well as the 2022-23 Gabba Test against South Africa.
Yes, somehow this test raised more concerns about Australia than Bangladesh.
Eleven days ago:
Today:
I mean, everyone saw this coming, surely?
On a recent “Stick To Cricket” podcast (with Vaughan, Lloyd, Cook & Tuffnell) Vaughan made the observation that of the 26 ECB contracted players, since Halloween 2025, 10 of them have interactions and/or investigations" with the police relating to off-field incidents. That’s almost 40%.
I appreciate the zing of the “Australians were selected by the best judges in England” slur used by the Balmy Army, but the Dartmoor XI picked to play the next Test could equally arguably be titled as “selected by the best bouncers in England”.
This time we are going to listen. We promise.
Amazing fight back from Sri Lanka. They were gone for all money at the end of day 4 effectively 35-6, but ground out 200 in 77 overs on the last day losing only three wickets. Wonderful example of a draw in test cricket.
Yeah, quite a breakout performance for Sonal Dinusha over both matches. Could he be SL’s next great batter? I know, too early to tell.
Yes, wonderful to see people getting runs when it counts, all credit to Dinusha and SL.
In unrelated news, England are 100-4
Recovered to 248-9 at the close. I feel like we let them off the hook. I don’t know how spicy the wicket was in the morning, but if you have them 80-4 at lunch on day 1, you’d hope to get them all under 200.
And here we go with the England hype machine.
AUS would probably have the worst batting line-up of any team when ranked #1.
And ENG took a much better bowling unit to the 2025-26 Ashes. Played on faster, harder pitches. Remind me; how’d that go?