When Steven Smith's golf ball landed in the Darwin practice nets from the adjacent Darwin Golf Club on Tuesday while Bangladesh were training, Mehidy Hasan Miraz was standing only a few metres away, deep in conversation with spin-bowling coach Mushtaq Ahmed.
Four days later, another miscued drive from Smith landed in Mehidy's hands off his own bowling to put Bangladesh a step closer to arguably the greatest upset in Test history.
Tuesday's bizarre interaction, albeit harmless and humorous, epitomises the entire Test so far. Bangladesh were focusing on the task in front of them; Australia, having done no less volume of training to be fair, were intent on taking their minds away from the game, conscious of expending too much mental energy given the monumental tasks that lay on the horizon.
Mehidy had every reason to be worried about the future when he arrived in Australia having been stripped of the ODI captaincy in order to free him up as a player.
His response has been emphatic. He made a century in the warm-up game before grinding out a four-hour 154-ball 65 against the only attack in Test history to feature four bowlers with 300 wickets or more. It was a masterclass in application and attention to detail. He had walked out at arguably the second toughest period in Bangladesh's innings, 4.5 overs into the second new ball. He immediately lost Mushfiqur Rahim to leave Bangladesh slightly wobbling at 308 for 6 as Australia hoped to keep the first-innings deficit well under 150, given the frailties of Bangladesh's last four batters. But he shepherded them superbly, sharing a 46-run stand with Hasan Mahmud and a 46-run stand with Taskin Ahmed to extend the innings by 53 overs and establish a 228-run first-innings lead.
It was the second time in his career that he played a crucial knock in SENA conditions, bettering his 47 off 88 against a World Test Championship-winning New Zealand attack in Mount Maunganui in 2022 to help set up Bangladesh's only Test win in SENA conditions in 25 attempts.
"It was a tough situation at the start when Mushfiq bhai got out when I was only on 2. I felt it was a challenging moment for me," Mehidy said after play on day three.
"The last couple of days we practised well, and I just think about how to get scoring options. We are not thinking about like they are a very good team. We just think about how to get a score in these conditions."
Contrast that single-minded focus to Australia's catching. They dropped Mehidy twice and missed five chances in all. Cameron Green dropped arguably the easiest on the final ball of day two with Mehidy on just 32. He guided a cut straight into Green's hands in the gully and it popped straight out. It would have cut Mehidy's innings in half and almost certainly ensured Australia's deficit was well under 200. Mehidy rubbed salt into Green's wounds when he hooked him for six off the last ball before lunch on day three.
That came after Australia's worst passage of the Test, which is saying something given it has been three days of consistently bad cricket. Travis Head dropped a difficult chance off Mehidy running back with the flight from midwicket, with tired legs unable to get him into a position to catch without a full-stretch dive. That came moments after Smith had dropped a sitter off Taskin at deep backward square in the same Pat Cummins over.
Josh Hazlewood, who was Australia's best in picking up 6 for 89 and passing 300 Test wickets in the process, admitted to match rust in his first game back after a long lay-off.
"I bowled probably four out of six good balls a lot of the time, and sort of let things off in those other two," Hazlewood said after play. "So yeah, could have tightened things up a little bit.
"There's not much footage on them in these types of conditions. So it's sort of working it out the run."
That might be true of Tanzid Hasan, who was playing his second Test match, but not of Mehidy, who had played 15 innings in New Zealand and South Africa, eight of which came as recently as 2022.
Australia's lack of attention to detail reared again with the bat a second time. Having watched Bangladesh's batters judiciously leave on length and line for 138 overs, waiting for width before unfurling cross-bat shots, Jake Weatherald and Head both tried to cut balls too close to off stump and dragged on with angled bats.
Head then did something that has not been seen on a cricket field since WG Grace was playing.
After chopping on to Hasan, he turned around and straightened his splayed leg stump and put the bails back on before walking off.
Head's act was not self-indulgent. Instead, it looked subconscious. The act of a man who had been so used to inconsequential centre-wicket hits at training in Darwin and Brisbane in recent weeks that he forgot that he couldn't just straighten his stumps back up and keep batting after making a mistake.
The casualness flowed onto Marnus Labuschagne and Smith against the spinners on a surface where Nathan Lyon had taken 1 for 102 in 31 overs with just four maidens. Labuschagne, having fought hard for 31, inexplicably played all around a half-volley from Taijul Islam trying to work it too square. Smith's incredulous reaction at the non-striker's end told a story.
But then Smith, who had cruised to 44 on the back of his first innings 71, chipped one back to Mehidy out of nowhere.
However, Mehidy deserves enormous credit for the planning and execution after starving Smith of his desire to punch down to long-on for a single with a straight catching mid-on and midwicket in place.
"There isn't much turn," Mehidy said. "We are just being patient with the ball. We have to cut out the runs. Taijul and I are trying to be economical. We are trying to keep them tied down.
"He's a great player and he played well. I just think about how to get them out and I just keep my simple plan. I'm not giving him many scoring options, and I just try to ball the good area all the time."
It was the second time Mehidy has picked up Smith in a big moment. The last time was in 2017 in Mirpur, when he, Taijul and Shakib Al Hasan orchestrated Bangladesh's greatest Test victory to date.
He finished the day with figures of 1 for 20 from 13 overs with four maidens, and his all-round brilliance has put Bangladesh on the brink of an even greater win.
"We are not thinking about the future, we are thinking about the present," he said. "We have to get them out as soon as possible. They need [67 runs to make us bat again] but still we are looking for wickets, two or three wickets. If you get two or three wickets, they are under pressure."
Mehidy is focused solely on the now and is reaping the rewards.