---
title: "Starc takes ten for fifty-one as Australia beat Bangladesh in two days"
description: "Bangladesh were bowled out for 64 and 95 either side of Australia's 210 at Mackay. Mitchell Starc took 6-12 and then 4-39. The margin was an innings and 51 runs, and the series is level at 1-1."
category: "Sports"
category_url: https://newsparlor.com/category/sports
author: "Liam Fitzgerald"
published: 2026-08-23T03:41:40-04:00
updated: 2026-08-23T03:41:40-04:00
canonical: https://newsparlor.com/article/starc-takes-ten-for-fifty-one-as-australia-beat-bangladesh-in-two-days
tags: ["cricket", "test-cricket", "australia", "bangladesh", "mitchell-starc"]
---
# Starc takes ten for fifty-one as Australia beat Bangladesh in two days

Bangladesh were bowled out for 64 and 95 either side of Australia's 210 at Mackay. Mitchell Starc took 6-12 and then 4-39. The margin was an innings and 51 runs, and the series is level at 1-1.

Australia beat Bangladesh by an innings and 51 runs at the Great Barrier Reef Stadium in Mackay, inside two days of a match scheduled for five. Mitchell Starc took 6-12 in the first innings and 4-39 in the second, match figures of 10-51, [according to Al Jazeera](https://www.aljazeera.com/sports/2026/8/23/starc-takes-10-as-australia-hand-bangladesh-innings-defeat-in-second-test).

Bangladesh made 64 and 95. Australia made 210.

## The arithmetic, since it matters

Sixty-four and 95 is 159. Australia's 210 exceeds that by 51. The margin as reported is an innings and 51 runs, and it reconciles exactly.

We are showing that working because cricket scorecards reported second-hand do not always add up, and a margin that does not reconcile with the innings totals is the clearest sign that one of the figures is wrong. This one is internally consistent.

## Twenty wickets in two days

Starc's ten came in a match where Australia needed twenty. Pat Cummins took 3-10 in the second innings and Nathan Lyon 3-25.

Six for 12 is the figure to dwell on. A bowler conceding a dozen runs while taking six wickets is not simply bowling well; he is bowling in conditions where the ball is doing enough that batting is close to impossible, and the scorecard shows it. Bangladesh's 64 was made against that.

Australia's own innings was not comfortable either. Cameron Green top-scored with 67 and Nathan Lyon, a number eleven by trade, was 32 not out. Shoriful Islam took 7-48 for Bangladesh, which on most days would be the headline and on this one was not enough to matter.

That is what a two-day Test looks like: 20 wickets and 369 runs across three innings, on a surface where every innings was a struggle and the difference was that Australia's struggle produced 210.

## What the captains said

Pat Cummins framed it against the previous match: "A lot of things went right these couple [of] days and a lot of things went wrong last week. But yeah, we needed to bounce back, and it was a great few days from the lads."

Najmul Hossain Shanto, who made 31 in the second innings, did not look for excuses in the pitch, though he described it: "We were not up to the mark with the bat. It was challenging conditions here with extra bounce and swing."

Both of those are honest readings. Australia lost the first Test, which is why the series is now level at 1-1, and a side that has just been dismissed for 64 and 95 has more to answer for than the surface.

We verified this account from a single publication and checked its arithmetic ourselves.

## Sources

- [Starc takes 10 as Australia hand Bangladesh innings defeat in second Test](https://www.aljazeera.com/sports/2026/8/23/starc-takes-10-as-australia-hand-bangladesh-innings-defeat-in-second-test)