support@headlinenews360.com
After sending both South African openers back to the hut early into the first innings, Mitchell Starc piled more misery on the Proteas during the World Test Championship (WTC) final.
With Australia reeling at 73 for seven on the second day, Starc added 61 with wicketkeeper Alex Carey and then allied with Josh Hazlewood for 59 runs in a gritty last-wicket stand to set South Africa a daunting 282-run target.
Starc made the Proteas pay for their dropped chance in the last over on Thursday, when the southpaw was batting on 14.
He shook off the jitters on Friday, making full use of an increasingly flat pitch and sunny skies to rack up his 11th Test fifty—his eighth from No. 9.
The southpaw rode out Temba Bavuma’s ploy to lure him into playing the hook shot by setting a defensive field and also dug out Marco Jansen’s attempted yorker.
When Bavuma introduced left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj to break the last-wicket partnership, Starc drove him square of the wicket. His 136-ball vigil seemed to have inspired Hazlewood, who uppercut Jansen’s short delivery over the slip cordon for a boundary.
Starc and Hazlewood’s 59-run partnership was the biggest for the 10th wicket in an ICC tournament final, and Starc’s was the first half-century by a batter at No. 9 or lower in an ICC knockout match across all formats.
It took the golden arm of part-time spinner Aiden Markram to eventually break the stubborn stand as a deflated South African team dragged itself off the field.
Still unbeaten at the crease when the last Australian wicket fell, Starc channeled his confidence into his bowling, prising out opener Ryan Rickelton three overs into South Africa’s chase.
With Markram and Wiaan Mulder threatening to mount a resistance, Starc struck again, inducing a fatal checked drive from the latter to equal his skipper Pat Cummins’ record for most wickets (12) in the finals of ICC competitions across formats.
