Follow UsHow does he keep doing it? HOW? Only he knows. But Mitchell Starc has delivered ONCE AGAIN in a major knockout game for Australia.
The last 10 years have seen Starc firmly establish himself as a clutch god, delivering at will whenever Australia needed him to. And he did it again today with the side under immense pressure.
Put into bat in overcast conditions, a mixed bag of an innings, in which nobody except Steve Smith and Beau Webster made runs, saw Australia fold for 212 in 56.4 overs. It was an okay-ish, slightly below par score, and what it did was put the bowlers under immense pressure to deliver.
Deliver Starc did.
It only took him six balls to strike, as he removed Aiden Markram by castling him. It was a beautiful set-up as after sending the first three balls away from the right-hander, he brought the fourth and sixth balls back in. And Markram, who loves to punch off the back-foot, ended up chopping one back onto his stumps. A tad bit of seam and swing back into him did it for the right-hander.
It was Starc's 19th wicket in the first over of the innings since his debut. Among active cricketers, nobody has more; Kemar Roach with 10 is the next best.
Two overs later, Starc should have had his second as he beautifully enticed Wiaan Mulder into playing an expansive drive to a full ball that held its shape. It was a thick nick, and the ball was headed for what was a straightforward catch to the wicketkeeper. To Starc’s dismay, Alex Carey ended up putting down an absolute dolly.
It was the kind of drop that could end up frustrating and deflating several bowlers. Not Starc, though. Seconds after the ball hit the ground, the left-armer turned around and went back to his mark to deliver the next ball, almost instantly erasing the drop off his memory.
Starc spent the next three overs probing and probing, and he finally got his reward in his fifth over. The left-armer sent one down full, and got it to shape away ever so lately, and that was enough for Ryan Rickelton, who ended up nicking it to Usman Khawaja at first slip.
5-2-9-2 was what Starc’s spell read at this point in time.
You usually associate Starc with the kind of bowler that bowls short, sharp spells but this was not one of those days.
Remarkably, the 35-year-old bowled a SEVEN-OVER SPELL, finishing with figures of 2/10, bowling three overs in the process. That two in the wickets column should have been three, and it could very well have been four had the on-field umpire ruled Temba Bavuma out LBW on the sixth ball that the Proteas skipper faced.
Mitch Starc, then, has already done his bit in this final. Does he not get bored of being so clutch?