Mehidy five-fer seals Bangladesh's historic maiden Test win in Australia

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Twenty-three years is a long time to wait for an invitation. When Australia finally hosted Bangladesh for another Test, their visitors ensured they made it count, dominating from ball one to seal a first-ever win on Australian soil. The final act of this remarkable Test belonged to Mehidy Hasan Miraz, the country's newly minted superstar, barely containing himself as he ran through Australia's lower order on the fourth day, and simply kept running, arms wide, history trailing behind him.

It was the all-rounder's 15th five-wicket haul in the format, and came after a superb 65 alongside the tail 24 hours earlier. It eclipsed Cameron Green's maiden home Test century, which had hauled Australia to a slender 56-run lead. Bangladesh still needed three more runs than the 54 they'd been shot out for last week against a Cricket Australia XI - a scoreline that had raised questions about how competitive this contest would be. But as they had been doing all match, they dispelled any cloud of doubt by easing their way home to a nine-wicket win, with every run of the final innings cheered by a sizeable Bangladeshi contingent in Darwin.

Bangladesh were ahead coming into this fourth day's play, but Australia still had six second-innings wickets in hand, including Green, to engineer a dramatic turnaround, the kind that wouldn't have been out of place for the top-ranked Test side. Green held firm from one end, moving to 85 by the Lunch break, but Mehidy, who had produced an ingenious variation to trap Steve Smith the previous evening, took charge by prising out Alex Carey and Beau Webster with two rippers. The left-handed Carey pushed forward tentatively to defend a ball that drifted in, dipped and turned to find the outside edge. Webster fell defending inside the line to one that went straight on and knocked over off-stump.

Those strikes left only the fast bowlers to accompany Green. Cummins fell with Australia still in arrears, pushing forward and inside-edging Mehidy to forward short leg. Green dragged Australia into the lead early in the second session and, alongside Mitchell Starc, threatened to push it into dangerous territory. It was Taskin Ahmed who broke the 43-run stand, removing Starc nicking behind. Green carried on to complete his third Test century, erasing some of the doubts over his form, but fell soon after for 104.

Having survived the previous evening when the ball struck the stumps without dislodging the bails, he wasn't as lucky this time, dragging a delivery from the game's other star, Hasan Mahmud, onto his own stumps. That wicket meant Mahmud, who had set this victory rolling on the first day with a six-for, finished with match figures of 9 for 111.

The end, fittingly, came courtesy of Mehidy, who trapped Nathan Lyon lbw to complete a fantastic five-for. That left Bangladesh needing only 57. First-innings centurion Tanzid Hasan Tamim fell for a duck, but Mominul Haque and Shadman Islam eased Bangladesh over the line and into the history books without breaking a sweat.

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