Australia lost a Test match at home to Bangladesh, and I am not particularly disappointed about it. In fact, as the match went on, I found myself becoming increasingly pleased for Bangladesh because this did not feel like Australia throwing away a game or being caught by one extraordinary performance. Bangladesh were simply better for almost the entire Test. They batted better, bowled better, showed more patience and seemed to understand far more quickly what the conditions required.
I should also be clear about how I followed the match. I was not in Darwin and I did not watch it on television. Most of it came to me through ABC Grandstand radio, the ABC Grandstand podcast and the Cricket Australia mobile app. Listening to the commentary, checking the score and following the match as it unfolded, I kept reaching the same conclusion: Bangladesh deserved to win.
There will probably be discussion about whether Bangladesh had the slightly better of the conditions at different stages of the match. Maybe they did. But conditions only become an advantage if you are good enough to use them. They do not bowl the right length for you, they do not make you leave the right ball, and they do not build partnerships. Bangladesh still had to do all of those things, and they did them exceptionally well.
What impressed me most was how ordinary, in the best possible sense, their cricket often sounded. They did not need to produce some strange or spectacular version of the game to beat Australia. They just played proper Test cricket. Their bowlers made Australian batters work, their batters were prepared to stay at the crease, and when Australia threatened with the ball they absorbed it rather than panicking.
That patience stood out because Australia seemed to have much less of it. There were obviously periods when the Australian bowlers looked dangerous. There should be, given the quality and experience of the attack. But Bangladesh were prepared to defend, leave, wait and gradually build an innings. They were prepared to let the innings develop slowly.
Bangladesh had also been badly beaten in their warm-up match before the Test, which made what followed even more impressive. Whatever adjustments they needed to make, by the time the Test began they seemed ready. Whatever preparation Australia had done, it is ultimately judged by what happens once the game starts. Australia did not bat particularly well and struggled for long periods to impose itself with the ball.
There will naturally be plenty of discussion in Australia about what went wrong. That is what happens when Australia loses a Test at home, particularly to a side it was widely expected to beat. Questions will be asked about the batting, selection, preparation and probably the broader direction of the team. They are legitimate questions, but I would hate for the entire conversation about this match to become another Australian post-mortem.
Sometimes doing that takes something away from the team that actually won.
Bangladesh did not sneak past Australia. They did not hang around long enough for something strange to happen and then steal the match late. The official margin was nine wickets, but even that does not really describe how convincing it felt. There was still plenty of cricket left when the winning runs were scored, and for much of the match Australia had been trying to recover from a position Bangladesh had created.
That is why I did not feel particularly disappointed. I support Australia and I wanted Australia to win, but by the end that seemed almost secondary.
There are Australian defeats where the frustration comes from watching a match being wasted. This did not feel like one of them. The stronger feeling was admiration for a team that came here, faced the number one Test side on its own ground and simply played better cricket.
They came to Australia, played proper Test cricket and beat Australia comprehensively.
Good on them. They earned it.