Australia pacer Mitchell Starc has a habit of wreaking havoc with the ball in hand. However, this time around, he provided rear-guard action with the bat to bail Australia out of a precarious situation in the World Test Championship (WTC) final against South Africa at the Lord's Cricket Ground. The left-handed batter remained unbeaten on 58 off 136 balls as he helped Australia set South Africa a target of 282 runs.
Starc came out to bat at 73/7 with Australia staring down the barrel and running the risk of letting South Africa back in the game after gaining a first-innings lead of 74 runs. However, on Day 2, the left-hander, along with Alex Carey, put on 61 runs for the eighth wicket, rescuing the defending WTC champions.
On Day 3, Starc came out to bat alongside Nathan Lyon. The latter got out cheaply. However, Josh Hazlewood, the No.11 batter, played a perfect second fiddle to Starc and the duo mixed caution with aggression. Along the way, Starc registered his 11th half-century in Tests.
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Starc now holds the record for scoring the most number of centuries by a batter batting at No.9 or below. He has smashed eight half-centuries while batting at No.9 or lower. Starc is ahead of the likes of Stuart Broad, Daniel Vettori, Michael Holding, Kiran More, Tim Southee and Graeme Swann.
{{/usCountry}}Starc now holds the record for scoring the most number of centuries by a batter batting at No.9 or below. He has smashed eight half-centuries while batting at No.9 or lower. Starc is ahead of the likes of Stuart Broad, Daniel Vettori, Michael Holding, Kiran More, Tim Southee and Graeme Swann.
{{/usCountry}}He is also now just the second batter after Stuart Broad to have five 50-plus scores from No.9 or lower in Tests in a single country (England).
Such was the effort of Starc in the second innings that he played the most number of balls by any batter in the ongoing WTC final at the Lord's Cricket Ground.
Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood's partnership
Starc and Hazlewood put on 59 runs for the final wicket in the second innings of the WTC final against South Africa. This is now the highest tenth-wicket partnership in any ICC Men's Final across all three formats of the game.
Australia were eventually bundled out for 207 in the second innings. Starc was the top-scorer with an unbeaten knock of 58. Kagiso Rabada returned with four wickets for South Africa in the second innings and he finished with nine wickets in the WTC final.
South Africa, who were bundled out for 138 in the first innings, will now need to play out of their skins to win their maiden WTC title and break the ICC trophy drought.
The Proteas have successfully chased down 250-plus five times in Tests to date. They can take confidence from the fact that three of these chases have come against Australia.
South Africa had earlier chased down 414 against Australia at the WACA, Perth.