Australia Bounce Back in Emphatic Fashion
What a difference a week makes. Seven days after suffering one of Test cricket's most humiliating results — a nine-wicket defeat to Bangladesh in Darwin that stunned the cricketing world — Australia responded in the most emphatic way possible. Mitchell Starc was virtually unplayable across both innings in Mackay, finishing with extraordinary match figures of 10-51 as the hosts dismantled Bangladesh twice inside two days to win by an innings and 51 runs and level the series at 1-1. For anyone who backed Australia to win the series outright after that Darwin shock, this result will have kept those bets alive — and this kind of dominant performance will shift the odds firmly back in Australia's favour for future series.
Starc's First Innings Devastation Sets the Tone
The tone was set early when Starc tore through Bangladesh's top order in the first innings, claiming a remarkable 6-12 to bowl the tourists out for a paltry 64. It was the kind of spell that reminds you why Starc holds the record for the most Test wickets by a left-arm fast bowler. Bangladesh simply had no answer to his movement and pace, and their brittle batting order capitulated in alarming fashion. From a coaching perspective, watching that first innings was almost painful — Bangladesh's batters looked hesitant and technically underprepared for the conditions Starc was exploiting so ruthlessly.
Australia Build a Match-Winning Lead
Australia's batting was far from flawless, but Cameron Green's 67 proved to be the anchor the innings needed. Nathan Lyon chipped in with an unbeaten 32 lower down the order, and although Shoriful Islam was outstanding with the ball — claiming a fine 7-48 — Australia ultimately posted 210, a first-innings lead of 146 runs that always looked match-winning on this surface. Pat Cummins and the rest of the bowling unit knew that a lead of that size, combined with Bangladesh's fragile confidence, made their task relatively straightforward.
Bangladesh Fold Again as Lyon Seals the Win
The second innings was almost a mirror image of the first. Bangladesh lost both openers with fewer than eight overs bowled and slumped to 24-3, never recovering their composure. By tea on the second day they had stumbled to 95-8, and Lyon wrapped things up in clinical fashion by taking the final two wickets in just three deliveries. Cummins himself contributed 3-10 in the second innings, while Starc added four more to his tally. The match ended up as the fourth-shortest completed Test in which a side won by an innings, with precisely 125 overs bowled across the entire contest.
Starc was rightfully named Player of both the Match and the Series, finishing the two Tests with 12 wickets at an average of just 12.08. "Much better week," he said afterwards, with considerable understatement. Cummins was equally pleased, noting that the group "needed to bounce back" after Darwin and that "everyone was sharp." As a former coach, I'd argue this result reveals as much about Australia's character as the defeat did about their complacency. The question now is whether Bangladesh can take the lessons from Mackay and build on the extraordinary promise they showed just a week earlier in Darwin.
