Australia thrashes New Zealand at Lord’s with Mitchell Starc magnificent again.
The defending champions Australia beat New Zealand at the splendid Lord’s in Cricket World Cup on Saturday. Mitchell Starc incessantly continues with his superb performance.
They have won four of the five recent editions. For the last four years ever since winning the 2015 World Cup, Australia has been obsequious in one-day international cricket. Their strategy and team selection have been disconnected. Players have been removed and discarded haphazardly.
Mitchell Starc played only three ODIs in 18 months before this tournament – has betrayed how bilateral ODIs have been an afterthought.
Currently, as the World Cup loomed into view and then arrived, Australia’s ODI side has metamorphosed from miserable to imperious. Going back to March, they have now won 15 of their last 16 ODIs. That now includes seven wins out of eight in this World Cup.
Reverting back to March they have now won 15 of their last 16 ODIs. That now includes seven out of eight wins in this World Cup.
Australia was reduced to 92-5, and then as Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor put on a 50-run partnership to take New Zealand to 97-2 in pursuit of 244 – the idea that New Zealand could repeat their victory in the group stages of the last tournament did not seem outlandish.
In the end, they were overpowered, falling apart after Williamson’s dismissal to lose by 86 runs. Besides Williamson, Trent Boult – who took a last over hat-trick – and the antagonism of Lockie Ferguson, the gap between the sides was made to look like a chasm.
Starc, a man who makes taking match-winning five-wicket hauls look as routine as moving the lawn. After going wicketless in his three-over opening burst, Starc returned from licking ice pops and signing autographs on the boundary edge to take 5-15 in his last 6.4 overs.
Starc now has 24 wickets in the tournament, seven clear of the next best. With 169 wickets at 20.60 apiece, at a rate of over two per game, Starc’s credentials as an all-time great of the ODI game are beyond doubt.
The clash between Kane Williamson against Starc was about as good as this tournament gets: a player who has made two peerless centuries against the tournament’s leading wicket-taker. As such, it always had the air of being match-defining.
When Starc was thrown the ball for his second spell, New Zealand needed 152 from 25 overs with eight wickets in hand and was slightly ascendant. Williamson quickly guided consecutive twos, placing the ball perfectly and running sharply, before Starc angled a fractionally slower cross-seam delivery across Williamson. Williamson misjudged his pat to third man, a staple of so many of his classic ODI innings, and walked off for 40.
At 97-3 in pursuit of 244, this ought not to have been a terminal blow for New Zealand. But such has been Williamson’s formidable influence so far this tournament that it immediately felt like one. With his usual blend of full, swinging deliveries, yorkers and bouncers, Starc crushed New Zealand.
The Black Caps are normally well known as perhaps the shrewd and most game-aware side around: a team with limitations, but the sagacity to conceal these. It did not seem that way as Ross Taylor endeavored to haul Pat Cummins across the line and Colin de Grandhomme picked out long-off from his very first ball, against Steve Smith’s part-time leg spin.
Truly Starc was in such a good mood and Australia was in a comprehensive victory. But juxtaposing innings from Usman Khawaja who hit just two boundaries in his first 106 balls – and the fluent Alex Carey lifted Australia to 243-9 despite Boult’s hat-trick. By the end of the day Australia, once again, were toasting the genius of their own left-arm.
The reigning World Cup player-of-the-tournament now has 24 wickets at 15.54 at this year’s tournament and has at least two more games to pick up the three scalps he needs to pass McGrath’s benchmark of 26 from the 2007 edition.
But, when he was asked what it would mean to him to pass the legendary fast bowler, Starc said: “Not much if we don’t win the World Cup.
“I’m just stoked to be playing a part in this group and continue to contribute. I’m really proud of the whole bowling group, the way we’ve executed the last few games. We keep improving as a group.
“It’s not just the guys who played today … We’re showing what we’re capable of on the field,” he said according to Cricket Australia.
Australia: New Zealand:
243 for 9(50.0 overs) 157 all out(43.4)
Khawaja 88,Carey 71 Starc(9-1-26-5)
Boult(10-1-51-4)
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