History in a hurry at Mackie

The Mackay Test between Australia and Bangladesh was over almost before it began. Completed inside two days and across just 750 balls, it stands as the fourth-shortest completed Test match in terms of balls bowled, and Australia's second-shortest of all time — only the 656-ball MCG thriller against South Africa in 1931/32 finished quicker Down Under.

Of the five Tests ever completed inside two days in Australia, four have now come in the last five seasons, signaling a shift toward dramatic, attritional cricket on these shores.

A 210 that ended the match

Australia's first-innings 210 became just the fourth lowest total ever to end in an innings win for the side that posted it. The last instance of a team scoring 210 or fewer yet still winning by an innings was Australia's 199/8 declared against New Zealand in Wellington almost eight decades earlier, in 1946.

For Bangladesh, the collapse was total. They were bowled out for 64 and 95 — only the fourth time since 1960 that a side has been dismissed inside 100 in both innings of a Test, following England (82 & 93) in Christchurch 1984, Pakistan (59 & 53) in Sharjah 2002, and Zimbabwe (59 & 99) in Harare 2005. Their match aggregate of 159 was a national record low, surpassing the 187 they made against West Indies in North Sound in 2018.

Starc's new-ball theatre

Mitchell Starc made the pavilion dance from the very first delivery. He became the only bowler in Test history to four times claim a wicket with the first ball of a match, surpassing Pedro Collins' three — Hannan Sarkar having twice on each of the three instances on the receiving end.

Across 43 innings, Starc has now struck nine times in the first over of a Test, eclipsing James Anderson's eight in 75. His six first-innings five-wicket haul once came in just 22 balls — the sixth quickest on record — and the milestone arrived for the third-earliest to an innings in history behind his own 15-ball burst against West Indies in Kingston last year.

Starc finished with 10 wickets for the match in a mere 20 overs, giving him a match strike rate of one wicket every 12 balls — the fourth best among all 490 ten-wicket hauls in history, unsurpassed since 1913.

A Bangladesh marker against the odds

In a vastly one-sided contest, Bangladesh found one genuine hero. Shoriful Islam's 7/43 — 7/48 — was the third-best innings return by a Bangladesh Test bowler ever, and the best by a seamer, surpassing Shahadat Hossain's 6/27 against South Africa in Mirpur in 2008. It also made him the most successful visiting seamer in Australia since Curtayne and Curtin's Ambrose took 7/25 at the WACA in 1992/93.

Islam and Starc also became just the fourth opening-day pairing in Test history to bag 12 and two spells of six wickets — alongside the famous pairs of Syd Barnes and Noble at the MCG in 1902, Faulkner and Blythe at Headingley in 1907, and Frank Worrell and Bill Johnston at Adelaide in 1951.

For Bangladesh, the 201-run humbling was a brutal re-introduction to Test cricket in Australia. For the record books, it was an extraordinary two days.