Quick hits: Tempers flare as Aussies wilt, Starc’s heart-in-mouth moment

Source : ABC NEWS

Mitchell Starc vents his frustration at a Bangladeshi batter, while a star is born on treacherous Darwin turf.

• As it happened: Aussies ground into the dirt on day two

Here are the quick hits from another torrid day for Australia against Bangladesh.

1. Smith grounds one

There is toiling, and then there is whatever the Australian bowlers were doing during the first session of day two.

The much-vaunted Aussie quartet, with Cam Green and Beau Webster in support, combined for just a single wicket during the opening two hours of play.

The ball found its way past Bangladeshi willow on a few occasions, but for the most part, chances were at a premium.

So, it was far from an ideal time for the usually so-reliable hands of slipper-supreme Steve Smith to let him down.

But with rookie opener Tanzid Hasan already past 50 and Australia having just taken their first wicket of the day, Smith floored one.

Tanzid edged a Nathan Lyon delivery into the elbow of Alex Carey, the ball ricocheted towards slip, and a diving Smith was unable to gather cleanly.

It was far from a sitter, but one Smith will be disappointed to have missed.

Tanzid given a life on 62.

2. Tanzid Hasan’s maiden Test ton

Coming into this series, there were serious questions surrounding Bangladesh’s opening pair, with the Tigers having struggled to nail down a reliable top two in recent years.

Up steps Tanzid Hasan, the 25-year-old opener playing just his second Test match.

Tanzid was considered and composed against the much-vaunted Australian attack, providing the foundation for a brilliant Bangladeshi team effort.

He already had an ODI century to his name, having scored 107 against Pakistan in Mirpur in March, and he also has scored five first class tons for an average of 39.60.

Talk about nervous 90s, though.

First, Pat Cummins whacked the 25-year-old on the arm with a vicious, 140km/h bouncer.

Then, Tanzid almost holed out to the substitute fielder at long off when on 96, skying a Lyon slower ball with a lofted drive that plugged in the outfield after falling just short of the fielder.

He moved to 99 with a neat clip, and then celebrated his century with a push down the ground off Lyon, a superb hundred celebrated accordingly.

3. The Darwin turf bites at the Australians

However, Tanzid was unable to turn his maiden Test ton into a truly big one, holing out to Lyon only a matter of balls later.

But Australian hearts were in Australian mouths as Mitchell Starc slid to make the catch and then flipped over ungainfully.

Starc, wincing as he got up, looked to be in some discomfort, and the replays showed that the Darwin turf may have been to blame.

The fast-bowler’s knee had been caught in the grass, with a cloud of dust and thatch of grass disengaging from the ground.

Thankfully, Starc appeared to recover well, but it wasn’t the first time the Marrara Stadium outfield had appeared a little loose, with the ever-energetic Marnus Labuscagne ripping out his fair share of greenery.

With the surface only likely to disintegrate more dramatically over the coming three days, both teams should be wary of not getting twisted up in the outfield.

4. Steve Smith’s hat-trick of slip catches

Australia desperately needed something to happen to interrupt the Bangladesh momentum — and it arrived with the new ball.

Josh Hazlewood, Mitch Starc and then Pat Cummins all extracted edges with the new pill, claiming the wickets of Hossain Shanto (84), Litton Das (0) and Mushfiqur Rahim (36) as Bangladesh crumbled from 3-297 to 6-308.

And all three of them were caught by Steve Smith at second slip, making dramatic amends for his earlier fumble.

That trio of catches put Smith level with Joe Root with 218 catches, the most ever by a non-wicketkeeper in Test cricket.

Australia’s pacemen are worth their weight in gold, but Smith certainly pays his way in the field to help them out.

5. ‘Get off the wicket!’

With that new-ball blitz an increasingly distant memory, and with the Australian bowlers beginning to wilt in the late Darwin sun, the hosts’ frustration was on full display late in the evening session.

Into the 103rd over of the innings, Starc was bowling to all-rounder Mehidy, who was well set and intent on seeing the day through.

Mehidy set off for a single and came very close to colliding with the Australian spearhead.

Starc wasn’t impressed.

“It’s my follow through, not your follow through. Get off the wicket,” Starc could be heard saying through the stump mic.

“I didn’t see!” Mehidy could be heard saying during the next over, still perhaps apologetic about the near-collision.

But of course, the all-rounder shouldn’t be taking the altercation personally.

The Australians’ frustration was all of their own making.

6. You call that a knife?

There’s nothing worse as an athlete than getting mud or grass caught between your cleats or spikes.

Nathan Lyon clearly had this issue during the second session, when going through his usual array of warm ups and stretches on the boundary at Marrara Oval.

But what can you do about it when in the middle of a Test match as you’re about to prepare for a bowling spell?

Turns out, you ask someone in the kitchen if they have a spare a butter knife they don’t mind soiling with some outfield dirt.

Much like the Northern Territory’s best known international export, Crocodile Dundee, one can almost imagine one of the locals querying Lyon’s choice of implement with quips like “you call that a knife …”