Warner, Handscomb revive Aussies against Bangladesh
chittagong — An unbeaten century stand between David Warner and Peter Handscomb led Australia’s strong reply against Bangladesh on day two of the second and final Test in Chittagong on Tuesday.
The visitors were 225-2 at stumps in their first innings, trailing by 80 runs after Bangladesh were bowled out for 305.
Warner was on 88 with Handscomb on 69 at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium.
Skipper Steve Smith hit a gritty 58 off 94 balls before being bowled by left-arm spinner Taijul Islam as the visitors slipped to 98-2.
The left-handed Warner and Handscomb then put on 127 to thwart the Bangladesh bowling attack, which failed to take a wicket in the final session of play.
Handscomb, who recorded his fourth Test fifty in just his 10th game, took regular drinks breaks as he battled exhaustion and dehydration in the final half-hour.
“Really gutsy, obviously it’s pretty hot out there, we saw that yesterday and you have to work really hard for your runs,” Australia coach Darren Lehmann told reporters.
“...Very special day and hopefully tomorrow they can kick on,” the 47-year-old former batsman added.
The swashbuckling Warner played a sedate innings, having hit just four boundaries during his 170-ball stay at the crease so far.
Warner rode his luck with two reprieves. He was dropped at short leg on 52 and then Mushfiqur Rahim missed a stumping when he was on 73, with Taijul and Mehedi Hasan being the unlucky bowlers.
“You don’t want to miss any chances do you? We missed a couple early in their innings, one of the things I do know over here is you’ve got to take every chance,” said Lehmann.
“So we had a couple of let-offs which is handy for us but when we get our chance tomorrow we’ve got to keep making sure we’re scoring at a nice rate and when you come to bowl again, make sure you take all those chances.”
Warner’s opening partner Matt Renshaw departed early, dismissed by fast bowler Mustafizur Rahman for four before the lunch break.
The left-hander tried to tickle a sliding delivery down the leg side but wicketkeeper Rahim took a stunning catch.
I think we fell short by 100-150 runs, looking at the wicket Nasir Hossain
Warner was then involved in a 93-run second-wicket partnership with Smith as the pair steadied the innings. Smith, who registered his 21st Test half-century, was done in by an arm ball from Taijul that sneaked through the bat-pad gap to hit the middle stump.
Earlier, Australian off-spinner Nathan Lyon claimed seven wickets to help bowl out the hosts, who resumed the day on 253-6, in the first session.
Lyon returned impressive figures of 7-94 including Rahim’s prized scalp for 68.
“I think we fell short by 100-150 runs, looking at the wicket,” Ban- gladesh all-rounder Nasir Hossain, who scored 45, said of his team’s first innings total.
“We are slightly on the back foot. A lot can however change in an hour in a Test match... we are not thinking about the result at this stage,” Nasir added.
Bangladesh lead the series 1-0 after registering their firstever Test win against Australia last week. —