{"id":738784,"date":"2026-08-15T11:40:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T11:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/738784\/"},"modified":"2026-08-15T11:40:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T11:40:11","slug":"australia-on-brink-of-historic-defeat-to-bangladesh-as-batting-woes-resurface-australia-cricket-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/738784\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia on brink of historic defeat to Bangladesh as batting woes resurface | Australia cricket team"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Australia will have to dig themselves out of a huge hole without their best batsman Steve Smith after Bangladesh kept their foot on the hosts\u2019 throat in pursuit of an upset Test win in Darwin.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Under-pressure all-rounder Cameron Green, who was bailed out by a stroke of luck, was looking composed on an unbeaten 43 at stumps on day three, along with wicketkeeper Alex Carey (19 no), as Australia reached 161 for 4 in their second innings.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The hosts still trail by 67 runs after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/sport\/live\/2026\/aug\/15\/australia-v-bangladesh-first-test-day-three-live-updates-darwin\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Bangladesh were dismissed for 426<\/a> just after lunch on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Openers Jake Weatherald (0) and Travis Head (17) both chopped on to paceman Hasan Mahmud before tea. After the break Marnus Labuschagne (31) played all around a half-volley from spinner Taijul Islam. For a set batsman, it was a cardinal error.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Green, on 12, inside-edged Taskin Ahmed for four via his leg stump in a moment of good fortune. Replays showed the ball hit the outside of the stump but the bails stayed on.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The dismissal of Smith (44) was out of character in the extreme as he pushed an innocuous delivery from spinner Mehidy Hasan Miraz straight back to the bowler.<\/p>\n<p>Steve Smith bats in good touch before being dismissed for 44 to leave Australia\u2019s hopes in tatters against Bangladesh. Photograph: William West\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Australia will have to rewrite the Test history books on home soil if they want to beat Bangladesh after the visitors took a first-innings lead of 228.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Bangladesh all-rounder Mehidy (65) and the tail took the total to 426 all out after lunch on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Australia paceman Josh Hazlewood was the shining light with the ball, taking 6 for 89. The wicket of Mehidy was his 300th in Test cricket as he became the ninth Australian to reach the milestone.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The largest first-innings deficit Australia have come back from to win a Test on home soil was 206, when they trailed Pakistan at the SCG in 2010.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">On that occasion Michael Hussey made an unbeaten 134 in the second innings and Australia bowled Pakistan out for 176 to win by 36 runs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Australia\u2019s woes were summed up before lunch on Saturday when No 10 batter Taskin hooked Pat Cummins for four with disdain. Next ball Smith dropped a sitter at deep backward square leg.<\/p>\n<p><a data-ignore=\"global-link-styling\" href=\"#EmailSignup-skip-link-14\" class=\"dcr-76akua\">skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-vf9hps\">Sign up to The Spin<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1r7my33\">Subscribe to our cricket newsletter for our writers&#8217; thoughts on the biggest stories and a review of the week\u2019s action<\/p>\n<p><img src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1782455907_861_500.jpg\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"dcr-xiq31o\"\/><\/p>\n<p id=\"EmailSignup-skip-link-14\" tabindex=\"0\" aria-label=\"after newsletter promotion\" role=\"note\" class=\"dcr-76akua\">after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Head then spilled a skied pull shot off Mehidy, a difficult chance, to make it five dropped catches for the innings by Australia.<\/p>\n<p>Travis Head drops a catch off Mehidy Hasan Miraz as Bangladesh turn the screws on Australia. Photograph: Robert Cianflone\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Mahmud (14) defied the bowlers for 92 deliveries after his brilliant 6 for 55 in the first innings in a show of batting application the Australians could well heed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Spinner Taijul Islam (17) took a more aggressive approach, flipping Hazlewood over the square leg boundary before slashing the same bowler to gully, in a handy cameo.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Hazlewood vindicated his selection ahead of the unlucky Scott Boland and was the pick of the Aussie bowlers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Bangladesh\u2019s first-innings lead was set up by a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/sport\/2026\/aug\/14\/australia-bangladesh-first-test-day-two-report-tanzid-hasan\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">maiden ton for Tanzid Hasan<\/a> (101) and an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/sport\/live\/2026\/aug\/14\/australia-v-bangladesh-first-test-day-two-live-updates-darwin\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">aggressive 84 by captain Najmul Hossain Shanto<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia will have to dig themselves out of a huge hole without their best batsman Steve Smith after&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":738785,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1721,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-738784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-cricket","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=738784"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738784\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/738785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=738784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=738784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=738784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}