Last Updated on 17 seconds ago by Charbel Coorey
Australia are hanging on by a thread against Bangladesh. Having been on the backfoot for three days in Darwin, the hosts will begin day four on 161/4, still 67 runs away from making Bangladesh bat again.
The top order failed once more, with Jake Weatherald, Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne out in loose fashion. And once Steve Smith was dismissed for 44 with Australia still 106 behind, a huge Bangladesh victory seemed a formality.
Josh Hazlewood says Australia believe they can still win from behind against Bangladesh
Cameron Green and Alex Carey saw Australia to the close courtesy of an unbeaten 39-run stand. However, that must grow significantly tomorrow, with the pair needing to bat until lunch at least to give Pat Cummins’ team a foothold in the game.
It is a view shared by Josh Hazlewood. The pace bowler believes Australia must knock off the remaining 67 runs without losing another wicket.
“Once we tick those [runs] off, hopefully we’re still four down and you can start to build the pressure,” he said, as quoted by Cricinfo.
Hazlewood admitted he wasn’t sure how the Darwin track will behave on days four and five. But, he said there were some signs of uneven bounce as he delivered the last of his 28 overs. He finished with 6/89, taking his 300th Test wicket in the process in the only bright spot in a tough match for Australia so far.
“I’m not sure how the wicket will play. Obviously we haven’t played much in Test cricket [here],” Hazlewood said.
“It was showing a little bit of signs of up and down. If we can bat deep into tomorrow and potentially even the whole day maybe, there’s always opportunities to take 10 wickets on the final day if the wicket is a little bit up and down.
“So [the] win is still definitely in our mind, and always is pretty much. So we’ll look to do whatever we can to move towards that.”
Only thrice have Australia come back from a 200+ deficit to win a Test. The last time they achieved the feat was against Pakistan in 2009/10.
Alex Carey has a history of scoring important runs. Green has looked composed for the most part despite somehow surviving an inside edge that clipped legstump. However, it remains a very tall order for the Australians, who will have to be perfect to win a Test they have been comprehensively outplayed in to date.
