Bangladesh celebrate historic Test thrashing of Australia

Bangladesh celebrated arguably Test cricket's greatest ever upset, a nine-wicket conquest in Darwin that has seen Australia's 20-Tests-in-12-months voyage begin in calamity.

Cameron Green's long-awaited maiden Test hundred at home merely delayed a result that had gone from beyond far-fetched to inevitable over the course of three-and-a-half-days of attritional cricket on an excellent Marrara Stadium pitch.

The first of two Top End Tests shaped as the mother all of mismatches. Here was the might of Australia, qualifiers for the past two World Test Championship finals and victors in 18 of their past 23 Tests. Over there were perennial strugglers abroad Bangladesh, losers in 22 of their past 26 Tests outside Asia, who in the past two months suffered innings defeats to Zimbabwe and the Cricket Australia XI.

But on Sunday Najmul Hossain Shanto's men, invited down under for Bangladesh's first long-form matches here since the release of the iPhone, had their country's greatest moment in 40 years of international cricket.

Pat Cummins did not bowl himself as Mominul Haque (30no) and Shadnam Islam (25no) knocked off the 57 fourth-innings runs required in the fourth day's second session.

A low-key fist pump from Mominul, who replaced first-inning centurion Tanzid Hasan who was bowled for a duck by Josh Hazlewood, after he cut Beau Webster for the winning boundary hardly gave away that his side had pulled off a result this momentous.

It came after Mehidy Hasan Miraz limited Australia to just 284 in their third innings, a marginally better effort than their match-losing first-day innings of 198.

Mitchell Starc's footmarks provided an ideal landing point for Mehidy's precise off-breaks. Four of his five victims were right-handed (including Steve Smith the previous evening) to cap a supreme Test in which he also dug in for a pivotal four-hour 65.

Equally deserving of the plaudits was paceman Hasan Mahmud, the official player of the match, whose match figures (9-111) were the best by a visiting bowler in Australia not named Jasprit Bumrah in the past 15 years.

Green had been asked by Australia's leaders to assert himself in the lead-in to Australia's first Test in seven months. He did so in his own way, grinding down the touring bowlers with just four fours in nearly five hours at the crease to keep his team in the match.

The 27-year-old's first shot in anger, a pulled six off Taskin Ahmed, took him to within one blow of his third Test hundred. Nathan Lyon surely risked another soft-tissue injury when he blind-turned and then dived full length for the double that clinched it for Green.

The tall Western Australian embraced Lyon then kissed the Australian badge on his helmet, signs of relief visible from one of the country's most scrutinised athletes.

But his rearguard could not take his side any further as Mahmud skidded one low off the deteriorating drop-in surface into his stumps via the toe of the towering right-hander's bat. He stood at the crease, hand on hip, Mahmud running past him celebrating what proved the final haymaker on the dizzied Australians.  

On the implausible scale, the result surpasses even the Shamar Joseph-inspired West Indies' turn-up at the Gabba two years ago. For Bangladesh, it surely ranks even above their 2017 home Test win over the Aussies in Dhaka as their most memorable victory.

With Australia resuming in the effective position of four for negative-67 in the morning and a stuttering miscommunication with Pat Cummins that nearly resulted in a mix-up aside, Green held his composure against Bangladesh's spin threat.

He passed fifty on home soil for the first time in three-and-a-half years but watched on as his allies dwindled.

Mahmud diligently targeted the around-the-wicket line that has troubled Alex Carey before, and might have had him caught behind had Litton Das not taken a false right step that allowed an edge to pass by his outstretched left glove.

But Das more than made up for his error when Carey nicked again, this time against Mehidy, and the keeper snaffled the significant deviation. When the diminutive tweaker struck again with a square spinner that skidded on and past the leaden-footed Webster, he set off on a gleeful sprint towards the Maurice Rioli Stand.

It was the second time in four days Webster had clean missed and had his off-stump disturbed. Mehidy's 15th career five-for was sealed when his opposite number Lyon was lbw sweeping, the 28-year-old kissing the turf and walking off the ground with ball held aloft.

NRMA Insurance Bangladesh Test series

First Test: Bangladesh beat Australia by nine wickets in Darwin

Second Test: August 22-26, Great Barrier Reef Arena, Mackay, 10am (local)

Australia squad: Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Jake Weatherald, Beau Webster

Bangladesh squad (first Test): Najmul Hossain Shanto (c), Mehidy Hasan Miraz (vc), Soumya Sarkar, Shadman Islam, Tanzid Hasan Tamim, Mominul Haque, Mushfiqur Rahim, Litton Das, Amite Hasan, Jaker Ali, Taijul Islam, Taskin Ahmed, Hasan Mahmud, Syed Khaled Ahmed, Ebadot Hossain Chowdhury, Musfik Hasan