Brisbane (Australia): Mitchell Starc has been menacing England with the ball in this Ashes series. Now he’s doing damage with the bat, too.
At stumps on Day 3 of the second test, England was teetering on 134-6 in its second innings and still needed to score 43 runs to make Australia bat again.
Starc was voted player of the match for his 10-wicket haul in Australia’s thumping eight-wicket win in the series opener at Perth last month.
Now he’s in line for another award in the day-night test in Brisbane. After taking six wickets in England’s first innings of 334 on Days 1 and 2, Starc scored an innings-high 77 as Australia responded with 511 on Saturday afternoon and then took two wickets in the night session.
England’s hopes now rest on skipper Ben Stokes, who will resume Sunday on 4.
Starc’s day outThe 35-year-old Starc made England’s bowlers toil all afternoon in sunny, subtropical conditions at the Gabba as he led Australia to a 177-run first-innings lead.
With the lights on and the pink ball starting to move around on the third night of the match, Starc took the crucial wicket of top-ranked Joe Root (15) to have England reeling at 123-5, still 54 runs in arrears.
He added the wicket of Jamie Smith in his next over as England slipped to 128-6.
Scott Boland and Michael Neser combined to take the first four wickets for Australia after Starc, for the first time in the series, didn’t take a wicket in the first over of the innings.
Boland removed Ben Duckett (15) and Harry Brook (15) and Neser took two sharp return catches to dismiss Ollie Pope (26) and Zak Crawley (44).
Neser later credited Starc with being the greatest left-arm bowler of all time.
“He’s a special player,” Neser said. “He doesn’t like to admit it, but he is the GOAT — the greatest lefty of all time.
“He does it with the ball, the bat, and to be next to him, witnessing what he does, is just amazing.”
Starc and the bowling attack will be aiming for four quick wickets Sunday to give Australia a 2-0 lead in the five-match series.
Double figures
For just the third time in almost 150 years of test cricket, all 11 Australian batters reached double figures in a test innings.
Starc’s was one of five half-centuries, following opener Jake Weatherald (72), No. 3 Marnus Labuschagne (65), stand-in skipper Steve Smith (61) and wicketkeeper-batter Alex Carey (63).
England had a tricky half-hour to navigate before the end of the middle session with the lights on and the sun going down. But for the first time in the series, Starc didn’t take a wicket in the first over of the innings.
England reached the break at 45 without loss, with Crawley on 26 and Duckett on 13, setting a foundation for more attacking batting in the night session.
Australia had injected some conventional test cricket into the series while batting through almost two sessions in natural light in a bid to grind England down, adding 133 runs for the last four wickets after resuming Saturday at 378-6.
The grindStarc went into bat in the fourth over Saturday at the end of a 54-run seventh-wicket partnership between overnight batters Carey and Neser.
Starc batted for more than 2½ hours for his best test score against England, guiding a 75-run partnership with No. 10 Boland, a record for a ninth-wicket stand at the Gabba.
While no Australian batters went on to post centuries, three England bowlers conceded triple figures. Brydon Carse took four wickets for 152 runs in 29 overs. Skipper Stokes returned 3-113 in 24 overs and Gus Atkinson took figures of 1-114 off 28.
Pace spearhead Jofra Archer took 1-87 and Jacks, the only spinner in the match, had 1-34 in 12, taking the last Australian wicket to fall.
“Tough day, yeah, obviously not in a great position,” England assistant coach Marcus Trescothick said. “Obviously it’s been quite challenging watching what’s going on and Australia getting ahead of the game and putting us under pressure.”
He said the England lineup needed to find solutions quickly so “we can come back tomorrow and sort of impact the game.”
