A 9- wicket for Bangladesh and the visitors taking a lead of 1-nil in the two game series. Ominous signs for Australia if you are Pat Cummins and a dejected perhaps stunned lot but a victory for world cricket, in a way. Right?
A few days ago, Bangladesh were bowled out for 54, just 54- forget not- in their practice game against Australia.
Not the perfect way to start a series, especially if you’re expected to be in an even more alert state for it’s Australia you’re to play against.
What’s worse?
It certainly won’t have helped their cause when Bangladesh actually lost a Test series to a cricketing outfit ranked even lower than them in the game’s longest format. The spirited Zimbabwe led by Sikandar Raza had actually made light work of the Bangladeshi team visiting the African shores. What was expected was perhaps a belting from Australia, not just a mighty cricketing force known for unabashed excellence ce across formats but a strong former World Test Championship winner. Isn’t it?
So frankly speaking, while a win at Darwin was least of the expectations from perhaps even the most measured and discerning minds that follow Cricket, what would have been apt was to have expected Bangladesh to fight and tough it out.
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Then to see Bangladesh record not just a heroic win at Darwin but totally snub what was clearly a power packed side replete with game changers and match winners, is not just a victory of the team that was least expected to win, but that of cricket itself.
Young Hasan Mahmud’s brilliant 9-for wicket tally, including a brilliant 6-for was just the kind of nerve wracking spell that you usually expect from a legend like Starc. Except it was a unit in which Starc usually shines that was asked amazingly hard questions of!
Mehidy Hasan Miraz’s heroics with the ball, culminating in a vital fifer in the second innings which included the huge wicket of Steve Smith totally blanked out the Aussies. Moreover, it eliminated a situation in which many a doting Aussie fan would have thought that only Nathan Lyon would emerge as the dominant spinner in the contest.
And then there was that major headlining act with the bat in Bangladesh’s first innings where Tanzid Hasan’s classy maiden century- a 101- marked a tidal change of sorts. It signalled to the viewer who still believes in the magic of test cricket that there was more to follow.
And at the same time more abomination of a usually powerful host than seen with its sheer ordinariness with the bat in the first innings!
And that a young, capable and very spirited left hander would carve the first of hopefully many 3-figure knocks, the kind of innings that doesn’t come all too often especially when an opposition is powered by matchwinning supremos like Lyon, Cummins, Starc and Hazlewood.
But here’s a case in point.
Cricket’s a game that appears all too beautiful when more than just an individual act of brilliance, an entire unit, a whole collective comes together.
In this case, a team of eleven united beautifully to topple not just a giant at its own backward, but thousands of inveterate fans who’ve grown habitual of seeing visiting sides being smashed in the Kangaroo land.
Only this time around, an underdog emerged right on top Down Under.
It’s one thing to beat Australia in Australia, a rarity in cricket much like seeing a surprise double increment in a single year at a bustling corporate.
But it’s even rare to bundle out a massive force in international cricket inside 5 days of a proper Test match, needing just 4 to create magic.
May Bangladesh Cricket continue to grow from strength to strength, and may they be able to create the impact that legions of their devoted fans from around the world have always dreamt of- in terms of consistency and continuity of effort. For now, the Cricket fan can bask in the glory of this being a victory for the game itself, not just of a spirited courageous team, which perhaps would have never imagined that it would topple Australia in the first Test itself.
