Key events
WICKET! Hazlewood c Shadman b Taijul 6 (Australia 210)
Hazlewood tries to up the tempo, but Taijul catches his edge and it flies straight up for a fairly regulation catch for Shadman.
52nd over: Australia 209-9 (Hazlewood 6, Lyon 31) After Taskin’s disastrous first over, he doesn’t get a second and Mehidy Hasan Miraz comes into the attack with his off spin for just his second over of the match, after getting the wicket of Alex Carey in his first over. Hazlewood blocks out the over and it’s a maiden for Mehidy.
51st over: Australia 209-9 (Hazlewood 6, Lyon 31) Hazlewood wants to get into the big hitting action and plays a slog over midwicket that nearly reaches the boundary, but it’s fielded inside the rope and they just run one to get Lyon back on strike. Lyon stays defensive to Taijul’s spin.
50th over: Australia 208-9 (Hazlewood 5, Lyon 31) Taskin Ahmed comes into replace Shoriful and Lyon starts with a nice cover drive for two. A couple of balls later he punches one down the ground straight back over Taskin’s head for three. He’s certainly playing with some freedom. Hazlewood picks up a single by just opening the face of the bat and dashing through to get Lyon back on strike. That turns out to be a smart thing to do because next ball Lyon likes the look of a short ball and pulls it for six! He tries to do the same thing next ball and misses, but it’s also a no ball, so Lyon gets another chance at it. The next one isn’t as confident a shot and it flies up in the air, but lands safely and rolls down to the rope for four.
49th over: Australia 191-9 (Hazlewood 4, Lyon 16) Taijul continues and Lyon finds a run early in the over. Hazlewood plays out the over defensively.
48th over: Australia 190-9 (Hazlewood 4, Lyon 15) The over starts eventfully with a big appeal on Green for LBW. The umpire turns it down, but Bangladesh decide to review. A very good decision, as Green is indeed out. Hazlewood starts very effectively with a punch off the back foot for four. Shoriful then throws in a frustrated bouncer, but Hazlewood doesn’t even have to duck, he just slightly moves his shoulder out of the way. The next ball is a better bouncer, that Hazlewood does duck under.
WICKET! Green lbw Shoriful 67 (Australia 186-9)
The ball from Shoriful is a perfect yorker – the epitome of a “sandshoe crusher” as it hits Green on the toe as he desperately tries to get his foot out of the way and his bat involved. An incredible delivery.
47th over: Australia 186-8 (Green 67, Lyon 15) Taijul continues and Lyon has fielders crowding around the bat and being very vocal, but Lyon doesn’t seem bothered, blocking out the over and not breaking a sweat.
46th over: Australia 186-8 (Green 67, Lyon 15) Shoriful starts his next over with a bouncer. Green then finds an opportunity for his pull shot and they run hard to get two. Those are the only runs from the over as Shoriful tightens the screws.
45th over: Australia 184-8 (Green 65, Lyon 15) After that loose over from Hasan, we have Taijul Islam coming into the attack with his left arm orthodox. Green defends the first ball, then rotates the strike to give Lyon a look at his fellow spinner. Just the one run from the over.
44th over: Australia 183-8 (Green 64, Lyon 15) Shoriful resumes and Lyon starts the over defensively. Shoriful throws in a bouncer and then strikes the thigh pad and appeals for LBW, but the umpire isn’t interested and Bangaldesh eventually decide that it’s probably too high to bother reviewing. A maiden from Shoriful.
While these two are batting well at the moment, Australia still has batting concerns overall and Thomas Meehan has some thoughts that he’s sent me via email.
Good Morning Megan,
The problem is no one is demanding selection by scoring mountains of runs. Looking up something Picky Ponting mentioned yesterday, from the last Shield season of the top twenty-two run scorers only three average 40 or above: Renshaw, Carey and Weatherald.
Best Wishes, Thomas Meehan
43rd over: Australia 183-8 (Green 64, Lyon 15) Hasan continues his spell and he picks up where he left off with his line and length targeting the stumps. Midway through the over he loses his line and puts one right in the slot – wide outside off – for Green who cuts it gleefully to the boundary for four. He finishes the over with another four, a powerful drive that slices through the in-field.
42nd over: Australia 173-8 (Green 55, Lyon 14) We get our first look at Shoriful for today after his outstanding performance on day 1. Green starts confidently against the left armer with a well-timed cover drive for two. He is more watchful for the next few balls, before rotating the strike. Lyon reckons he’s got the measure of this guy and drives the first ball he faces for four – the first boundary of the day.
41st over: Australia 166-8 (Green 52, Lyon 10) Green starts on strike with Hasan bowling. He hasn’t yet taken a wicket in this innings (Shoriful has been hogging all the wickets) so he’ll be keen to play his part in bringing Australia’s innings to a close. His first couple of balls are outside off stump and Green is happy to leave them alone. He adjusts his line and brings it in at Green’s stumps – he defends comfortably for a couple of balls and then flicks one off his pads to get off strike with a nicely worked single. Lyon finishes the over with a solid defensive shot.
The teams are out on the field and we’re ready to get underway!
While Australia has a chance to add to their lead today, the batting is still a concern and no one is more concerned than Marnus Labuschagne. The commentators are chatting about him this morning and Mark Waugh is adamant that if he doesn’t score runs in the second innings, his time in the team is over. The problem may be that there aren’t enough runs for him to get to prove himself. I’m interested to hear from you – who do you think should hold the number 3 spot? Is it Marnus? Or have you got your eye on someone else?
And if you’re still wondering why on earth there’s Test cricket happening up in the tropics in winter, you might need to take one more step back and read about what happened in Darwin last week. The always brilliant Geoff Lemon has you covered with a breakdown of Bangladesh’s incredible upset.
You’ve got some time before the first ball is bowled, so why not spend it catching up on yesterday’s action? Here’s the match report to get you up to speed.
Preamble
Megan Maurice
Welcome to live OBO coverage of day two of the second Test between Australia and Bangladesh from the Great Barrier Reef Arena in Mackay. Play begins at 10am AEST.
Day one was quite something with 18 wickets falling in the day’s play. While Australia are on top with a lead of 101 runs, they will be disappointed in their inability to really pile on a commanding score and bat Bangladesh out of the contest.
If you asked me to sum up the first day of this Test in three words, I’d have to go with “left arm pace”. Both Mitchell Starc (6-12) and Shoriful Islam (6-35) were on song with the ball and took advantage of a good wicket to snaffle six wickets apiece.
Shoriful also top scored for his team with the bat, however since that top score was 14, he’s probably not in a big hurry to write home about that, despite the fact that his tail-wagging antics frustrated the Australian bowlers no end and saved Bangladesh from recording their lowest-ever Test innings score.
Australia’s batting had a few more bright spots, with Cameron Green passing late in the day and Steve Smith contributing 42. But their opening woes continue with replacement opener Matt Renshaw only able to add eight runs before he was dismissed (surprisingly not by Shoriful).
All this wicket-falling mayhem on day one has set us up brilliantly, so let’s get into the second day and see what it has in store for us!