Day 1
Bangladesh 253/6
The Bangladesh captain, Mushfiqur Rahim, and Sabbir Rahman shared a century stand to initiate a fight back from Nathan Lyon’s five-wicket haul and lead the hosts to 253 for six on the opening day of the second and final Test against Australia on Monday.
Leading Australia’s three-pronged spin attack with the new ball in hand, Lyon claimed three wickets in the morning session and another soon after lunch to reduce Bangladesh to 85-4 at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium.
Sabbir and Mushfiqur arrested the slide with a 105-run stand for the fifth wicket. Sabbir fell after tea but Mushfiqur was batting on 62 at stumps with Nasir Hossain on 19.
Desperate to level the series after being humbled inside four days in Dhaka, Australia went in with three spinners and a lone paceman in Pat Cummins, a strategy they had not employed since 1978. Lyon was rewarded for his clever change of pace and the Bangladesh batsmen paid the price for playing him on the back foot with the ball often keeping low.
Mushfiqur won an important toss and unsurprisingly opted to bat against a spin-heavy Australian side but the hosts did not get the start they were looking for. The opener Tamim Iqbal looked uncomfortable against Cummins’ pace and was spilled in the slips by Glenn Maxwell.
Lyon ensured it did not really matter, however, trapping the opener lbw for nine with a quicker delivery. Four overs later, Imrul Kayes fell in the same fashion after Australia successfully reviewed the original not-out decision. Soumya Sarkar added 49 runs with Mominul Haque but Bangladesh suffered another setback on the stroke of lunch.
Lyon sent down a skidding delivery to dismiss Soumya for 33 and returned after the interval to claim Mominul for 31, the fourth successive lbw decision. Ashton Agar took the important wicket of Shakib Al Hasan, the architect of Bangladesh’s thrilling 20-run win in Dhaka, for 24 with under-fire Matthew Wade taking a fine catch behind the stumps.
Sabbir was not afraid to play his shots and stepped out to hit Lyon for a six in his belligerent 66 before Wade effected a smart stumping to give Lyon his third five-wicket haul in successive Tests.
Mushfiqur was his usual composed self at the other end as he brought up his 18th Test fifty.
Day 2
Bangladesh 305
Australia 225-2
Peter Handscomb fell ill in stifling heat as Australia reached 225-2 at stumps, trailing Bangladesh by 80 runs, on day two of the second Test in Chittagong.
Handscomb received medical treatment but played through Tuesday’s last session to finish on 69 not out as the visitors took control of the match after dismissing Bangladesh for 305.
David Warner was unbeaten on 88, delivering another big subcontinent score after making a century in the first Test in Dhaka.
Nathan Lyon earlier took his tally for the innings to seven wickets to continue his excellent series.
Play was paused for about five minutes late in the final session when Handscomb pulled up on his haunches, looking clearly unwell after running between the wickets.
The 26-year-old sat on the ground and was examined by team doctor Geoff Verrall, who applied cold towels to his head and neck.
The Australians have struggled with the conditions throughout the match, with sole quick Pat Cummins receiving treatment on Monday for a heat-related illness.
Handscomb, who showed sublime footwork during his stylish knock, faced 113 deliveries in the difficult conditions, while Warner dealt with 170.
After scoring an aggressive ton in Dhaka, Warner changed gears with a patient and composed knock to bring up his 25th Test half-century from 98 balls.
The left-hander was dropped on 52, with Mominul Haque putting down a difficult chance at short-leg off the bowling of Taijul Islam.
He also benefited from a bungled stumping on 73, with Bangladesh skipper Mushfiqur Rahim fumbling the ball when Warner danced down the pitch and missed an attempted slog.
Mushfiqur, who top-scored for Bangladesh with 68, had earlier taken a spectacular diving catch off the bowling of paceman Mustafizur Rahman to dismiss Matt Renshaw (4).
It was an excellent afternoon session for the Australians, who had looked somewhat vulnerable when skipper Steve Smith threw his wicket away shortly before tea.
The Australian skipper was on 58 when he was clean-bowled by a straight delivery from left-arm spinner Taijul shortly before tea.
Smith fumed as he walked from the ground after leaving an inviting gap between bat and pad for Taijul to exploit in his first ball of the innings.
He had looked in imperious touch, reaching his half-century from 81 balls and twice dispatching dangerous left-arm spinner Shakib Al Hasan for four with audacious standing sweep shots.
Lyon earlier finished with 7-94 – his fourth seven-wicket haul and the equal-second best figures of his career after claiming 8-50 against India earlier this year in Bangalore.
Day 3
Bangladesh 305
Australia 377-9
AUS lead by 72 runs
David Warner’s second successive hundred against Bangladesh helped Australia to a 72-run lead on the third day of the second and final Test in Chittagong on Wednesday.
Australia had eclipsed Bangladesh’s first innings total of 305 by tea but a late collapse from the tourists left them on 377-9 at stumps, having been 298-3 at one stage, on a day where rain washed out more than a session’s play.
Resuming Australia’s innings on 225-2, overnight batsmen Warner and Peter Handscomb batted with the assuredness that was the hallmark of their 152-run partnership. That all changed when Handscomb ran himself out in his eagerness to help Warner reach the 100 mark, sprinting for a single before being sent back.
Handscomb made a desperate dive but could not beat Shakib Al Hasan’s direct throw from square leg, ending a previously patient 82 which included six boundaries.
Warner brought up his 20th Test century with a fifth boundary, driving a Nasir Hossain full toss through cover. Warner’s innings, painstakingly constructed over six hours, followed his 112 in the first Test in Dhaka where Australia were beaten inside four days by the hosts.
Bangladesh took the new ball as soon as it was available and Mustafizur Rahman nearly tasted immediate success when he induced a lazy drive from Glenn Maxwell but Mehidy Hasan spilled the catch at gully.
Mustafizur dismissed Warner for 123 with a short-pitched ball which the batsman hit to leg slip where Imrul Kayes fumbled before finally taking the catch.
Warner’s departure triggered a middle-order collapse as Hilton Cartwright (18), Matthew Wade (8) and Ashton Agar (22) were all dismissed for low total.
Cartwright was dropped by Mehidy off the spinner’s own delivery but edged to Soumya Sarkar at slip soon after, while Maxwell lived dangerously in making 38 runs before being caught by Mushfiqur Rahim.
Mehidy trapped Pat Cummins lbw to leave Steve O’Keefe and Nathan Lyon at the crease at stumps. Mehidy ended the day with figures of three for 93 while Mustafizur, celebrating his 22nd birthday, claimed three for 84.
Day 4
Bangladesh 305 & 157
Australia 377 & 87-3
Australia win by seven wickets
It was nothing short of a clinic. Claiming his third consecutive six-wicket haul, Nathan Lyon orchestrated a seven-wicket Australian victory and Steve Smith’s side can leave Bangladesh with their pride intact by squaring the series one-apiece.
After knocking over the hosts for 157 in their second innings, Australia took no chances with a volatile fifth-day weather forecast, aggressively hunting the 86 runs required in 15.3 overs to finish the job on the fourth afternoon. Any fleeting moment of concern after a third wicket fell on 48 was dealt with by Glenn Maxwell, who smashed 25 in 17 balls, striking the winning runs with a defiant six over midwicket.
For Lyon, the statistical markers he set during the fortnight make it one of the greatest all-time individual bowling performances. His match haul of 13-for-154 is the fourth best recorded by an Australian spinner, while the 22 victims he collected across the four innings left him only one short of the record for the most in a two-Test series. The cream on top: Lyon now also tops the charts for the most wickets taken by any bowler in 2017.
Just as he had on the opening morning, Lyon feasted on Bangladesh’s left-handers, initiating a 4-11 top-order collapse that had the hosts whirling at 43-5 – still 30 short of making Australia bat again. Two further scalps in the middle session made another five-wicket bag, then one after tea completed figures of 6-60.
Earlier, he was the last wicket to fall in Australia’s first innings, the tourists not adding to their overnight 377, banking a lead of 72. Young quick Mustafizur Rahman claimed the last, his fourth, and with it the pressure shifted back onto Australia’s bowlers to do it again.
But that didn’t last, the visitors’ own firebrand Pat Cummins into the book in a hurry, winning Soumya Sarkar’s edge inside five overs. Enter Lyon. After taking the new ball, he was spun around to follow Cummins at the conclusion of his first spell, happily dropping into his familiar rhythm with enviable accuracy.
First, his flight compelled Tamim Iqbal down the track only to prod when he got there. Beating the edge, Matt Wade completed the orderly stumping. Imrul Kayes was next, his horror series over when misreading a hard-spun Lyon off-break, spooning a catch to Maxwell at cover.
The best was yet to come. Shakib Al Hasan, the Dhaka matchwinner with bat as much as ball, was defeated by the type of delivery that finger spinners dream of. From around the wicket, Lyon forced him to play to another well-aired delivery, clipping the shoulder of his bat before landing in the hands of Warner at second slip, who clasped the low chance.
Already claiming seven first innings wickets, this made it 10 in the match already for Lyon – the second time in his career to double figures – with six still up for grabs.
Up the other end, it was Steve O’Keefe’s chance to get in on the act, having missed out entirely the first time around. But he was much more threatening second time up, and the first right-hander in the line-up, Nasir Hossain, edged him to the cordon as well.
Resistance arrived either side of lunch from captain Mushfiqur Rahim and No7 Sabbir Rahman, who dragged their side into the black by 11 runs by the long interval. For the briefest moment, it prompted discussions of what would constitute a tricky chase if the two could bat for an another hour or two.
But it didn’t take long for that to end either, predictably enough through Lyon, who benefitted from some variable bounce to strand the charging Sabbir. The dismissal required Wade to collect the ball on the second bounce before taking the stumps, which he managed unflustered.
Bangladesh selected an extra specialist batsman for an eventuality like this, Mominul Haque in at No8. With his captain, they combined for another nagging stand of 34. That too was broken at the moment it looked promising, within three balls of Cummins’ reintroduction. He was too quick for Mushfiqur, who fended to Wade on 31.
The fast bowler was in the action again for the next wicket, making considerable ground to snaffle an athletic diving catch when Mominul top-edged Lyon sweeping. Another innings, another addition to the spinners’ five-wicket-bag column – his 12th in Tests.
After tea, Taijul Islam’s defence was never going to deny Lyon for long; he went through the gate of his fellow spinner for his 13th and final wicket of the match. When O’Keefe bowled Mustafizur a deeply disappointing second innings was over for the hosts, who had blown any chance to win this series in the space of two sessions.
With the required runs safely secured, Australia leave Bangladesh more bruised than they arrived, but a one-all scoreline is an accurate reflection of an engaging contest. Next stop: the Ashes. On the available evidence of the last two weeks, what happens there is anyone’s guess.
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