The overriding sentiment around Great Barrier Reef Arena has been that of gratitude over the last couple of days. Whether it’s from those who’ve driven long hours from the northern and southern coasts of Queensland, from Rockhampton to Clairview, to make it for the Test. Or the Mackay faithful who’ve remained excited for their official entry on the Test cricket map from the day it was announced last year. Some like Butch and TJ, who ran the Bama (brother in the local tongue) Men’s Group concession stall, have waited decades to have Test cricket in their backyard.

And whoever you’ve bumped into, even on the streets and pubs of Mackay, have shared their unabashed appreciation for having brought the Australian Test team to their quiet town alongside Pioneer River. They’ve also shown their enthusiasm for the event by filling up the grassbank and the boutique stands around the venue formerly known as Harrup Park. Over 12,000 fans making themselves heard and seen over the weekend, with tickets sold out again for what should have been Day 3 on Monday.

Only for Mackay’s first-ever exposure to big-ticket men’s cricket barely lasting all of five sessions, the shortest Test on Australian soil in nearly a century. Also, the third Test - out of seven - to barely last two days in Australia over the last nine months. That’s 12 out of the 35 scheduled days of Test cricket that haven’t been required.

While the frequency of highly premature Test finishes is fast becoming an issue across the board, for now it’s important to say that Mackay deserved a lot better. The people, the venue, the atmosphere, and the pitch. Peter Kazakoff, head curator at the Great Barrier Reef Arena, if anything deserves a lot of credit for having recreated a pitch straight out of the Gabba, where he’d spent a majority of his early pitch-curating days under the tutelage of the legendary Kevin Mitchell Jnr.

And it played a lot like a traditional Gabba surface too, with steep bounce in the early going before getting quicker as the days progressed. Yes, there was seam movement on offer for the fast bowlers throughout, and the nature of the square meant that the ball remained fresher for longer and continued to swing. The healthy breeze assisted the left-armers, Mitchell Starc and Shoriful Islam, in a great way.

But these weren’t conditions that suggested, or should have resulted in the kind of mayhem that ensued over the course 125 overs, which is how long it lasted. Like has been the case so often of late, it came down to the two batting groups, spare a couple, not being up to the task, resulting in probably the most disappointing Test match in recent memory.

There were of course two outstanding bowling performances that played a huge role in the expedited outcome of the match. Led by Mitchell Starc’s 6/12 in the first few hours, starting with his first burst that more or less sealed the Test. That was followed by an equally impressive display of swing and length bowling from Shoriful Islam, playing his first Test on Australian soil and producing arguably the best bowling performance by a Bangladeshi ever on foreign soil. It’s safe to say however that a breakdown of the 30 wickets to fall would reveal more batting errors than bowling excellence. With Starc himself admitting that he and his fast-bowling colleagues had bowled a lot better in Darwin the previous week with obviously lesser impact.

It eventually came down to the modern-day cricket malaise of batters not displaying either the temperament or the technique, maybe even the willingness, to hang around and fight the good fight.

Apart from Cameron Green and Steve Smith. While Smith was his sublime self before copping a borderline LBW call from umpire Kumar Dharmasena, Green looked even more like the Test batter that Australian cricket has always hoped he’d become after having broken the draught with his third century last week in Darwin. His innings at the Marrara Oval was about soaking in the pressure of the match situation and still managing to stick to his batting gameplan. The 105-ball 67 at Mackay was at many levels even better, since he managed to showcase his growing batting credentials in this format with the same calmness and serenity despite everything else around him transpiring at warp speed.

Australia were always expected to bounce back in dominant fashion after the defeat in Darwin, where they were outplayed in every session of the match. Especially in conditions that suited their game style, both in terms of the weather conditions and the pitch. There were always going to be questions around Bangladesh, meanwhile, about somehow being able to rinse and repeat their discipline and gumption for two Tests on the trot against the Australians.

There were ominous signs of that not happening pretty much from the moment Shadman Islam was knicked off by Starc with the first delivery on Saturday morning. Some of the dismissals in their second innings ended up being even more a stark illustration of how they simply seemed to have tapped out of the challenge even before it began. Captain Najmul Hossain Shanto’s incomprehensible shot off Nathan Lyon straight into Starc’s hands at long-off probably capping it off.

What probably contributed to the overall mediocrity of the Test match even more though was the Australian top-order’s inability to cope with the test, which will be very similar to what they’ll face in South Africa come October. It eventually will be counted as a convincing comeback win to level the series, but as part of a largely unconvincing series performance with the bat in what is fast developing into a batting crisis for Australian Test cricket.

Monday morning should have been the start of an exciting third day’s play in front of a capacity crowd at the Great Barrier Reef Arena. Instead, all the action had shifted to Mackay Airport where cricketers and cricket people alike made their very premature exits leaving the locals to ponder about what could have been. They will always have the wicket from the first ball of the first ever Test in their backyard from Starc to recall fondly along with the manic excitement of the fast-forward nature of the contest. Not to forget the energy of the dozens of Bangladeshi fans who showed up with their flags and their colour.

It will still go down in their history as an event that was memorable, even if the overall cricket was far from remarkable. Mackay simply deserved a lot better.