David Leggat: Underdogs bare teeth at last in near-miracle

Here's two names I'd never have thought would appear in this column: Shahriar Nafees and Mohammad Rafique.

Strange things can happen on the back of what was almost the greatest upset in test cricket history.

You think that's pushing it a bit? After all, Bangladesh didn't actually beat Australia in Fatullah this week.

No, but consider that here we have cricket's test baby, who had lost 37 of their previous 42 tests, with only a solitary win over a weak Zimbabwe side, since joining the nine test-playing nations in 2000.

And remember they have copped plenty of negative talk suggesting they should be dumped back into the second tier of the game.

So this week Bangladesh hit back, just about toppling the game's most successful country, who currently include several players well on the way to being legends of the game.

You can just imagine the Australian players getting together at the fag end of a draining international season wondering why they have to bother going to places they've never heard of to go through the motions for a few days which were good only for massaging their averages.

Had it not been for Adam Gilchrist belting a century in the first innings and Ricky Ponting steering a seriously-listing ship home with his Bradman-esque ninth hundred from his last 14 tests, we'd all be rejoicing at the little guy getting up to punch the big bruiser on the nose.

Part of that is most of us secretly like to see the underdog tripping up the hotshot. Maybe that's a New Zealand thing. After all, take away rugby and how often is a New Zealand team or individual viewed as the strong favourite in a sports contest?

Part of it was probably because it was the Aussies on the run and sweating hard in steamy Fatullah.

The match raises some interesting questions.

What will happen in the second test, starting at Chittagong tomorrow? More of the same, or the resumption of the normal order of things?

Bangladesh have clearly made decent strides in the past year. Remember they beat the Aussies in a one-dayer in England last year (which prompted one of Glenn McGrath's more subtle digs; when England just sneaked past Australia in a subsequent ODI, McGrath muttered loudly as hands were being shaken at the finish, "fancy almost losing to the team who lost to Bangladesh").

But how will they cope away from their own surroundings? They'll be here in December so we'll soon find out.

Last time they were in New Zealand, they were tumbled by an innings and 52 runs, then an innings and 74.

Some of those players were playing this week. So watch out for names like Nafees - the 20-year-old lefthander who belted a first-day century off Brett Lee, Jason Gillespie, Stuart Clark, Shane Warne and Stuart MacGill - Mohammed Rafique, who took nine wickets in the match, Rajin Saleh and Shahadat Hossain.

"They certainly have come a long way," Ponting said afterwards.

You bet they have and all those who argued "give them time" amid the knife-sharpening naysayers will be wearing told-you-so looks right now.

Finally, what about Ponting? It's fashionable that when asked to rate the world's best batsman over the past few years, the first two names mentioned are, in no special order, Brian Lara and Sachin Tendulkar, with his fellow Indian Rahul Dravid close behind.

Take a glance at the feisty Tasmanian's record. Consider his deeds of the past year and there's no doubt he's top dog right now.

And had he not carried on a staggering run of form on Thursday, the quiet pleasure derived from the pluckiness of the Bangladeshis would have been transformed into a full-scale rejoicing at one of those sporting moments you would never imagine would happen.