Australia closed the third day of the first Test against Bangladesh on 161-4, trailing the record-chasing tourists by 67.
Published on August 15, 2026
Spinner Mehidi Hasan Miraz took the key wicket of Steve Smith to reduce Australia to 161-4 after the third day of the first Test in Darwin and move Bangladesh closer to a historic win.
At the end of Saturday, Australia trailed the visitors by 67 points in the second round, with Cameron Green scoring 43 points and Alex Carey 19 points.
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After being dismissed for 426 shortly after lunch, Bangladesh seamer Hasan Mahmood stunned Australia when he made both openers cheaply.
Hassan, who took a career-best 6-55 in the first innings, bowled Jake Weatherald (0) and Travis Head (17) in similar fashion, both clipping their stumps.
On the good batting tape, Marnus Labuschagne and Smith steadied the ship at first.
Labuschagne, who was out of form and seeing his place in the team increasingly in question, was down to 31 before playing over a straight ball off left-arm pacer Taijul Islam and being bowled.
Smith, often Australia’s savior, batted sensibly but with the score on 122 he got an edge off off-spinner Mehedi and returned it straight to the bowler.
“The way we showed our character and the way we played over the last two or three days was amazing,” visiting captain Najm Hussain Shanto told Fox Sports.
“We take it session by session, focusing on the process, not the outcome.”
Earlier, Mehedi did the damage with the bat, scoring a valuable half-century in Bangladesh’s first innings.
After Bangladesh were beaten well by the Cricket Australia XI in their only warm-up match, including being bowled out for 54 in the second innings, many expected this Test to be an easy victory for Australia.
But the unwanted visitors dismissed the hosts for 198 points First day He then showed great dedication with the bat to keep the hosts on the field for 138 overs.
Mahdi defended the lower order brilliantly in the morning session to thwart the tiring Australian attack.
When he was finally dismissed for 65 by Josh Hazlewood shortly after lunch, he had helped put his team in a strong position mid-on.
Bangladesh are trying to win a Test in Australia for the first time, in the third attempt.
Mehidi shines for Bangladesh to frustrate Australia
After Bangladesh It resumed today At 351-6, fast bowler Hazlewood took two wickets in the first hour to give the host hope of ending the tail-end relatively quickly.
But Mehidi’s brilliant batting allowed Bangladesh to challenge the Australian bowlers on a hot and humid Darwin morning.
They were helped by some poor Aussie possession of the ball, including the almost inexplicable miss of Smith, who was nicked by Taskin Ahmed deep but squandered the simplest of chances.
Two balls later, Mehdi missed a powerful shot only to be able to head home a more difficult chance.
After challenging the Australians for more than an hour in the final session on Friday, Hasan lasted just four overs in the first session on Saturday before being trapped at leg by Hazlewood, adding one run to his overnight score of 13.
Taijul Islam made a breezy 17 before it became Hazlewood’s 299th wicket in Tests when he directed the ball straight to Cameron Green in the gully.
With Mehdi Taskin protecting, Bangladesh pushed the lead beyond 200 runs and kept the Australian bowlers toiling for another two hours.
Hazlewood, a 6-89 attacking pick, reached 300 wickets in Tests when Mahdi was caught behind by Alex Carey to leave Bangladesh 418-9.
He got to 301 when No. 11 Ebadat Hussain fell in the same manner for seven.
