Border-Gavaskar Trophy: Starc’s love affair with pink ball lights up Adelaide

There is something about Mitchell Starc, the senior Australian paceman, and the pink ball. It was his day out at The Adelaide Oval on Friday when he ran through the Indian batting line-up to finish with a career-best haul of 6/48, his fourth fifer in day-night Tests and the most by any pacer.

The famous Aussie grit was back after a strange capitulation in the first Test at Perth as the Indians, who out-batted them last time, were found wanting in the face of a combination of swing and awkward bounce on the channel outside the off-stump. It caused the fall of Virat Kohli and KL Rahul as both were caught in a moment of indecision while young Yashasvi Jaiswal must have been ruing his sledging of the bowler last time.

When India were all out for 180, the fans must have been hoping for a riposte like last time with Jasprit Bumrah leading the way. He did strike an early blow by removing Usman Khawaja with a delivery which climbed up at his rib cage, and proved virtually impossible to score off (13 runs off 11 overs) but Nathan McSweeney and crisis man Marnus Labuschagne had won a mental warfare by end of play. India will now be keen to make some early inroads on Saturday to wrest the initiative back.

The contribution of Starc-Cummins-Hazlewood triumvirate in the success story of their team over the past decade, and in all formats, had been stuff of folklore. While Hazlewood missed out on the second Test due to a side strain, they found an honest trier in Scott Boland, but Starc was simply relentless whenever Cummins turned to him for the breakthroughs.

There was a great sense of occasion for the New South Wales man as he became only the fourth Australian bowler to take more than 350 wickets across all formats of the game in home conditions - joining an elite list that includes the legendary Shane Warne and Brett Lee.

His 15th five-wicket haul in Test cricket means Starc now has two more fifers with the pink ball than Trent Boult of New Zealand and teammate Hazlewood – not to forget he now has the highest number of wickets (72) in day-night Tests.  

Duel with Yashasvi

A pumped up Starc, who won the second round of the ongoing duel with Yashasvi after the Indian opener sledged him in Perth, certainly showed a champion’s ego at work. Coming in over the wicket, he swung the ball from the leg-stump and straightened it to hit Yashasvi’s pads as the latter was dismissed for a golden duck, 10 days after the daddy hundred.

The wickets of Rahul and Kohli, both virtually action replays as they were left surprised by the extra bounce and were committed to half-hearted jabs at the last minute, brought the hosts back in the game. Starc was brought into the attack when Nitish Reddy and Ravi Ashwin were hanging in and he struck twice in an over, sending Ashwin and tailender Harshit Rana back with searing yorkers.

Most wickets by an Aussie at home (all formats)

Shane Warne: 453 wickets, 153 matches

Glenn McGrath: 449 wickets, 161 matches

Brett Lee: 360 wickets, 142 matches

Mitchell Starc: 351 wickets, 127 matches

Craig McDermott: 318 wickets, 131 matches

Dennis Lillee: 300 wickets, 85 matches