Mackay joins Test cricket's fastest finishes

Test cricket is supposed to be a contest measured in days, sessions and long spells of concentration.

The Mackay Test barely had time to settle into its second day.

Australia's innings-and-51-run victory over Bangladesh was completed after only 750 balls, making it one of the shortest completed Tests in the history of the format.

It was also the second-shortest Test ever completed in Australia, behind the 656-ball contest between Australia and South Africa at Melbourne in 1931-32.

The speed of the result was remarkable even by the standards of recent Australian Tests. Mackay became the fifth Test in Australia to finish inside two days, with four of those matches coming within the past five seasons.

The numbers from this match explain why.

Bangladesh were bowled out for 64 in their first innings. Australia replied with 210, before Bangladesh were dismissed for 95 in their second.

That meant Bangladesh managed only 159 runs across the entire Test.

The match also produced an extraordinary contrast between the two left-arm fast bowlers.

Mitchell Starc destroyed Bangladesh's first innings with 6 for 12 and later added four more wickets. His final figures of 10 for 51 gave him his fourth ten-wicket haul in Test cricket.
Shoriful Islam provided Bangladesh with an equally remarkable individual response.

He took 7 for 48 in Australia's innings, recording the best innings figures by a Bangladesh bowler in an away Test. Yet his performance could not compensate for the damage already done by Australia's attack.

The match therefore became a rare Test in which both sides had a bowler capable of dominating an innings, but only one team's batting was able to provide enough support.

There is another striking statistical detail.

Bangladesh failed to reach 100 in either innings. It was the first time in their Test history that they had been dismissed below three figures in both innings of the same match.

For Australia, the victory was also their third two-day Test in the last seven home Tests.

That makes the Mackay result more than simply a series-levelling victory.

It has added another entry to the growing list of unusually short Tests in Australia-and renewed questions about why matches that are traditionally built to last five days are increasingly being decided before the second day has even finished.

Mackay began with Bangladesh dreaming of a historic series win.

It ended with a place in Test cricket's statistical record book.