Australian pacer Mitchell Starc, continued his streak of knocking over batters in the first over during the ongoing second Ashes Test against England on Thursday. On Day 1 of the Brisbane Test, Starc removed England batter Ben Duckett for a first-ball duck, which was also the final delivery of the first over. He pitched up the ball fuller, angling into Duckett’s stumps. The batter brought his bat out to defend his stumps, but the ball moved away just enough to catch his outside edge, and Marnus Labuschagne made no mistake at first slip as he caught that safely.
Starc is sitting on top of the list featuring bowlers with the most wickets in the first over of a Test match. The lefy arm pacer has taken 26 wickets, followed by James Anderson (19) and Kemar Roach (10) in the list. Pink-ball Tests certainly bring out the best in Starc, as he is the leading wicket-taker (83) with that particular ball.
Mitch Starc goes past Wasim Akram
Mitchell Starc went past legendary pacer Wasim Akram’s tally of 414 Test wickets. He went past this feat when he returned in the third over and got Ollie Pope to chop on as the ball was going away from him, and he played a half-hearted horizontal bat shot, which produced an inside edge as the ball crashed into his stumps. Starc has 415 wickets now and is the highest wicket-taker among left arm pacers in the history of Test cricket. He is very likely to add plenty more to that tally in this ongoing Test match against England at Brisbane.
Most wickets for a left-arm pacer in Tests
415* - Mitchell Starc (195 inns)
414 – Wasim Akram (181 inns)
355 – Chaminda Vaas (194 inns)
317 – Trent Boult (149 inns)
England won the toss and elected to bat first on a good surface at Brisbane. Starc jolted them early with a couple of strikes and they were tottering at 5/2 before Joe Root and Zak Crawley scored half centuries to steady the ship. Zak Crawley soon after the break lost his wicket to Neser. England are trailing the Ashes 1-0 after losing the opening match at Perth.
