Eighteen wickets fell in a single day. Two fast bowlers took six wickets each. One team was bowled out in the second session, while the other was also on the verge of being bundled out. So, it is expected that the record books were rewritten on the opening day of the Mackay Test.
Mitchell Starc (6/12) and Shoriful Islam (6/35) both took six wickets. This is only the fourth time in Test cricket that two bowlers have taken six wickets each on the opening day of the same Test. The previous instances were Sydney Barnes–Monty Noble (Melbourne, 1902), Aubrey Faulkner–Colin Blythe (Leeds, 1907), and Frank Worrell–Bill Johnston (Adelaide, 1951).
Starc has now taken a wicket with the first ball of a Test four times. He has moved to the top of this list, overtaking Pedro Collins. Collins took a wicket with the first ball of a Test three times, dismissing Bangladesh opener Hannan Sarkar on all three occasions.
Starc has now taken five wickets with the first ball of an innings in Tests. Only Richard Hadlee has more, with six.
Starc took five wickets in just 22 balls today. It is the sixth-fastest five-wicket haul in Test cricket by number of deliveries. Starc also holds the record for the fastest five-wicket haul, having taken five wickets in 15 balls against the West Indies last year.
Shoriful took five wickets in 8.5 overs, the second-fastest five-wicket haul by a Bangladeshi bowler. Taijul Islam holds the record, having taken five wickets in 6.5 overs against the West Indies in 2018.
Starc has now taken 28 wickets in his first over in Tests, putting him second on the list. James Anderson leads with 29. However, Starc has taken nine wickets in the first over of a Test match, the most by any bowler.
Starc took five wickets in just 6.4 overs after the Test began in Mackay. There has been only one faster five-wicket haul in a Test: Stuart Broad took five wickets in 6.1 overs against Australia in Nottingham in 2015.
By overs bowled in an innings, this is the third-fastest five-wicket haul. The record of 4.3 overs also belongs to Starc, achieved against the West Indies last year.
Starc has taken a five-wicket haul against all eight teams he has played against in Tests. Australia''s Shane Warne and Nathan Lyon have also taken five-wicket hauls against eight different teams.
Starc has taken six or more wickets in an innings against seven teams. Only five bowlers have achieved the feat against as many or more teams: Muttiah Muralitharan (9), Rangana Herath (9), Anil Kumble (7), Harbhajan Singh (7) and Ravichandran Ashwin (7). All five are Asian spinners!
Four of Bangladesh's first six batters were dismissed for ducks. Starc dismissed all four. This is only the second instance in Test cricket of the first four batters among a team's top six being dismissed for zero in the same innings. The first was New Zealand seamer Nathan Smith, against Ireland in May this year.
Bangladesh's 64 in Mackay is their fourth-lowest total in Test cricket. It is their lowest against Australia. It is also the third-lowest first-innings total by any team in a Test in Australia. The lower totals were South Africa's 36 (Melbourne, 1932) and England's 45 (Sydney, 1887).
A score of 64 is now also the lowest first-innings total in the first Test at any venue. The record was set in Mackay's maiden Test. The previous lowest was 84, scored by South Africa against England at St George's Park in Gqeberha in 1889. That was both the venue's first Test and South Africa's first Test.
A wicket fell from the very first ball of the first Test in Mackay's history. The same had previously happened at Jalandhar, Jaipur and Pallekele.
Shoriful top-scored for Bangladesh in the first innings with 14 runs. It is only the 13th time in Test cricket that the No. 11 batter has been the top scorer in an innings, and the second time for Bangladesh.
The first came in 2004 against India, when Talha Jubair scored 14. He is now Bangladesh's bowling coach.
A score of 14 is jointly the lowest top score by a No. 11 batter in a Test innings. In Australia's 47-run innings against South Africa in Cape Town in 2011, Nathan Lyon was also the top scorer with 14.