After 45 minutes of the opening day in Mackay the scoreboard read Bangladesh 12 for 5, all of them to Mitchell Starc. Shortly after lunch it was 64 all out and Starc had 6 for 12.
During the evening session, amid a rare period of relative calm, Australia were 118 for 4. By the close they were 165 for 8 with six of them to Shoriful Islam on his comeback from injury and whose previous best in Tests was 3 for 28. Bangladesh's spirit to even give themselves a chance after such a paltry total was another feather in their cap.
Still, Australia ended with a significant lead of 101 and, given how the ball has dominated, should go on to win. But it was another of those fast forward days of Test cricket that have become much more frequent. In Australia alone, the 18 wickets (in just 74 overs) followed 19 on the opening day against India in Perth in 2024-25, 19 at the same ground against England last season and 20 at the MCG later in the Ashes.
"People will see 18 wickets and say it's a bad wicket. I think it's a very good day one wicket," Starc said. "It's probably played very similar to a Gabba wicket. You see some tennis-ball bounce early on day one at the Gabba like today. It's probably going to quicken up again and once a bit of that hardness of the ball wears off, there's less sideways [movement], but with the square that we've got here, it's swung throughout the day. A pretty helter-skelter day of cricket, but I'd say some good bowling led to 18 wickets."
This was certainly not the case of, "Can't wait to get you to the Gabba", as Tim Paine famously sledged India with at the SCG in 2021 but, while Bangladesh spoke confidently about confronting a different challenge to Darwin, the promise of more from the surface will not have disappointed the home side, notwithstanding their uncertain batting line-up.
References to the Gabba, which will be demolished after the 2032 Olympics, had never been far away as Great Barrier Reef Arena became the 12th venue to host men's Tests in Australia.
The curator, Peter Kazakoff, was understudy to the legendary Kevin Mitchell Jr in Brisbane for nearly 20 years before moving north. Harrup Park uses a similar clay to the Gabba and on the eve of the Test, Kazakoff promised "a lot of pace", good carry and some early assistance for the quicks. He, and also Steven Smith before the toss, said it should flatten out as the games wears on, but this match may not go deep enough to find out.
The coin landed Pat Cummins' way for the second time in the series and he did what he probably should have done in Darwin: asked Bangladesh to bat. Then it was over to Starc. The first ball of the Test squared up Shadman Islam and was pouched at gully by Cameron Green. Starc's superhuman first-over record barely needs repeating, but it was the fourth time he had struck with the opening delivery of a Test. This one brought back vibes from the last time he did it, removing Yashasvi Jaiswal lbw in Adelaide in 2024-25, the match after Australia had been thrashed in Perth.
Starc finished with 6 for 48 that day, setting Australia up for a handsome series-levelling victory. Mackay unfolded even quicker and in less than an hour Starc had a five-wicket haul in 22 deliveries. Remarkably, though, it wasn't even Starc's fastest five-for having taken just 15 balls against West Indies in Jamaica last year when the home side crumbled for 27.
The full deliveries did the damage with all five of his early wickets coming from the ball pitched up. CricViz data showed there was actually less sideways movement here than in the opening session in Darwin (which poses the question what might have happened had Australia bowled first) but having left so superbly in the first Test, Bangladesh's batters were caught flat-footed and playing away from their body with the extra pace of the surface allowing less time to adjust.
"Bring the stumps into play, bring that outside edge into play," Starc said of Gabba plans being implemented further north. "We're not going to get hurt too much on the drive because they've been patient but with the assistance off the wicket, we can get that ball forward and bring in the outside edge, bring in the stumps a bit more, make them play a bit more."
Tanzid Hasan and Mominul Haque both managed to squeeze full, wide deliveries into the cordon which could have been left alone; Najmul Hossain Shanto and Litton Das were both beaten by Starc's inswing. Mushfiqur Rahim was caught flat-footed as Cummins ended Starc's early monopoly on wickets.
"They're clearly a shorter batting unit as opposed to what we bowl to in the nets," Starc said. "I thought we bowled quite well last week particularly with the new ball. I think a lot of balls that passed the outside edge [but] probably didn't bowl full enough to a short batting group. Then, with their patient approach, you can bowl half-volleys and swing here and they're going to nick them."
But the batting struggles were not one sided; Australia's aren't going anywhere. On his return to Test cricket, Matt Renshaw was jittery during his brief stay before edging into the slips, as he aimed to take a delivery which straightened from outside off through the on side. Travis Head made another start before chopping on for the third time in three innings - the debate is already heating up as to whether he should return to the middle order.
Then there was Marnus Labuschagne who was bowled off his thigh pad when the ball deflected down into leg stump. He's rarely quick to leave the crease but could barely drag himself away. A huge call looms for the selectors, regardless of the result here.
Smith and Green added 77, for a time suggesting the game was calming down, but the most borderline of lbw decisions against Smith - it was barely grazing the spigot of the off bail - ended those thoughts. While batting had been tricky at times, Alex Carey's decision to try and launch Mehidy Hasan Miraz down the ground was questionable.
Shoriful, who had taken 6 for 48 in an ODI against Australia in June, seized the moment to cut a swathe through the lower order late in the day. An inswinger trapped Beau Webster lbw first ball to continue a lean series for the allrounder, Cummins gloved a short ball and Starc was cleaned up by his opposite number.
"When I was playing age-level cricket, I saw him [Starc], and I liked him," Shoriful, whose idol is fellow Bangladesh left-armer Mustafizur Rahman, said. "I am playing with him, so … I am a bit excited, but he got six and I also got six, so it is more [feeling] happy."
Through the clatter of wickets, Green showed that run-scoring remained possible, as Smith had done beforehand, bringing the confidence from his Darwin century into another well-controlled innings. Yet while that has ensured Australia are firm favourites to get a series-leveling win, and perhaps as soon as Sunday, familiar uncertainty seems likely to remain.