Bangladesh's Mahmud Dismantles Australia for 198 as Test Cricket Returns to Darwin
Australia collapsed to their lowest-ever Test innings total against Bangladesh, bowled out for 198 on day one of the first Test at Darwin's Marrara Stadium on 13 August 2026.
The tourists' reply started shakily — Bangladesh closed at 36 for 1, trailing by 162 runs.
Test cricket returned to the Top End for the first time in 22 years, with the first ball bowled at 10am local time. The two-match series, Australia's first home Tests against Bangladesh since the sides began playing each other, opens in Darwin and closes from 22 August (ICC).
Australia won the toss and chose to bat. It went badly wrong. Their last five wickets fell for just 46 runs, turning a modest position into a full-scale collapse. The 198 they managed was their lowest Test score against Bangladesh in any innings (ABC News).
The architect was fast bowler Mahmud, who tore through the Australian line-up with figures of 6 for 55 from 17 overs — a spell that put Bangladesh on top against a side they have beaten only once in seven previous meetings, at Mirpur in 2017. Australia have never lost a home Test to Bangladesh.
Steve Smith provided the only real resistance with a defiant half-century, but even his innings came wrapped in fortune. He was handed what reports described as a triple reprieve — dropped on two, then surviving a caught-behind appeal despite appearing to walk, before eventually falling to Mahmud (7News; ABC News). The Smith caught-behind incident drew immediate comparisons to the Snicko controversies that marred the last Ashes series in Australia, where an operator error gave wicketkeeper Alex Carey a reprieve.
Bangladesh achieved all this with a depleted bowling attack. Their four-wicket session reduced Australia from a position of tentative recovery to one of deep trouble, and Taskin Ahmed chipped in by bowling Beau Webster (Reuters; BBC Sport).
Australia's XI featured both Cameron Green and Webster, while Scott Boland and Josh Inglis missed out (ICC). The selection talk before the match centred on balancing all-rounders against specialist bowlers on a Darwin surface that had not hosted international cricket in over two decades.
Bangladesh's reply lasted barely a few overs before Mitchell Starc struck. Opener Shadman Islam fell for a duck, caught off a leading edge off Starc's bowling, leaving Bangladesh at 36 for 1 overnight — still 162 behind with nine wickets in hand and everything to play for on day two (BBC Sport).
For Bangladesh, who have spent years knocking on the door of Test cricket's established order, a day-one performance of this quality on Australian soil represents a genuine opening. For Australia, a batting card with no individual century and a tail that surrendered meekly leaves questions to answer before the second innings even begins.
