Australian pacer Mitchell Starc activated his ‘beast mode’ on Day 2 of the ongoing third Ashes Test against England at Melbourne Cricket Ground to script one of the most memorable spells of fast bowling. Starc tore apart England’s top-order during their second innings after the home team posted 267 to take a lead of 82 runs.
The crowd at MCG went wild after Starc nearly picked up the hat-trick during his five-over brutal spell that sent shockwaves to the entire English batting unit. It all started in the fifth over of England’s innings when the left-armer picked up two wickets in consecutive balls and almost got the third scalp to reach the three-in-three landmark.
On the fourth ball of the over, Starc bowled a good length delivery that seemed to shape in but held the line only to find Zak Crawley‘s thin outside edge and handed Alex Carey a simple catch. Then, England’s number three Dawid Malan entered the arena but departed on the very next ball.
Starc delivered a 140kph ripper that nipped back in off the seam and crashed into the pads of the left-handed batter as Starc, and the entire slip cordon, along with the 42000-plus crowd, went for a huge appeal.
Umpire Paul Wilson raised his finger, and Malan quickly went upstairs. However, the ball-tracking showed the umpires call as the red leather was clipping the top of the leg stump. At came England’s captain, Joe Root, who walked out with the weight and the hopes of countless English fans on his shoulders.
Root kept the hopes alive of England fans but due to his pure luck as Starc’s hat-trick ball was as good as anything the English captain has faced in this series. The left-armer bowled a back of a length delivery which zipped away at the last moment, but it missed the edge by barest of margins.
The official Twitter handle of Cricket Australia posted a compiled video of those sensational three balls, which sent the MCG crowd wild.
Here is the video:
Hat-trick balls don't get much closer than that! 🥵
Mitch Starc on fire and the MCG has erupted! #Ashes pic.twitter.com/lVniO4V0k1
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) December 27, 2021
