Mitchell Starc warmed up for the upcoming Ashes series in style and sounded out a loud warning to England’s batsmen as the left-arm pacer took a hat-trick for his state side New South Wales in the Sheffield Shield encounter against Western Australia at the Hurstville Oval in Sydney on Monday.
Starc, who was rested for the series against India, continued his magnificent form in the domestic circuit. After having removed Jonathan Wells for 1, the left-armer proceeded to wipe out the Western Australia tail in grand style.
In the fourth ball of the 67th over, Starc operated from round the wicket and cleaned up Jason Behrendorff with a yorker for 20. With his fifth ball, he trapped David Moody, the nephew of former Australia cricketer Tom Moody LBW for 0. Starc achieved the hat-trick when he bowled Simon Mackin with another yorker to finish with figures of 4/56 in 20 overs.
{{/usCountry}}In the fourth ball of the 67th over, Starc operated from round the wicket and cleaned up Jason Behrendorff with a yorker for 20. With his fifth ball, he trapped David Moody, the nephew of former Australia cricketer Tom Moody LBW for 0. Starc achieved the hat-trick when he bowled Simon Mackin with another yorker to finish with figures of 4/56 in 20 overs.
{{/usCountry}}Rain stopped play after Starc’s hat-trick and New South Wales have established a decent lead on the third day of the Sheffield Shield clash.
Starc, who last played a Test match in Bangalore against India in February, picked up seven wickets in three games for New South Wales. However, in his first First Class game of the season, the 27-year-old picked up a 10-wicket haul, including 8/73 as New South Wales defeated South Australia by six wickets.
The left-arm pacer had earlier issued a warning to England’s batsmen, saying Australia’s pace attack will make life tough for them, similar to how Mitchell Johnson had done when he took 37 wickets to help Michael Clarke’s Australian team whitewash England 5-0.
“It’ll be much like that attack did when Johnno (Mitchell Johnson) took all those wickets, I think we complement each other really well. “Throw in Jackson Bird, and Coulter-Nile is back bowling really well. So we’ve got five really good guys,” Starc said.
The first Test of the Ashes series will begin on November 23 at the Gabba.