The Darwin Awards: Australia's Top Orders Trouble in the Top End

PL reports the first day did not go to plans for a trio of embattled batters

Australia 198 (Smith 71, Mahmud 6-55), Bangladesh (1-96). Thomas Miles’ score cards below.

Anyone with Putinesque delusions about a quick Australian victory over a weaker opponent was, by lunch on the first day at Darwin, starting to understand how even the most asymmetrical of battles can take a surprise turn.

Curiously, given the grass, the clouds and reports of a wicket as hard as a cat’s head, Pat Cummins chose to bat. Tradition suggests one should, but the weather was relatively cool and the opportunity at hand for a bowling captain to take advantage of the best conditions for those of his trade.

Knock them over, bat big through the second day, knock them over again, see what’s left to be done.

Cummins told the cameras Australia had been “waiting for this for some time” to get out there and prove themselves. Probably none more so than certain members of his top order. The opening hours suggested some of his batters had wound themselves up so tight in the seven months between this Test innings and their last, that they were fit to burst.

Jake and Marnus and Cam, in particular, like kids returning to school after the summer break, were keen to display all they’d learned in the holidays. Too keen? Too anxious to impress? Probably. How else to explain the fluffing of lines, the stumbling and stuttering, and occasional frustrated flail?