Five wickets in 15 balls: Starc’s stunning spell seals series win over West Indies

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Kingston: Mitchell Starc did everything in his power to not make his 100th Test in Kingston about him, uncomfortable with the adulation that has come his way after bringing up such a special milestone.

That was until he was thrown a new pink ball — and the carnage began.

A stunning five-wicket haul from Starc, coupled with a late hat-trick from Scott Boland, spearheaded Australia to a resounding series whitewash against a West Indies outfit whose batting reached embarrassing new lows on Monday in Jamaica.

Set 204 to claim their first win over Australia in the Caribbean since 2003, the West Indies slumped to 6-11 in 5.2 overs.

They were eventually bowled out for 27 in 14.3 overs. On day three alone, 14 wickets fell for just 49 runs.

For the fourth time in his Test career, Starc took a wicket with the first ball of an innings, removing John Campbell for a golden duck as Josh Inglis took a catch behind the stumps in place of Alex Carey, who was ruled out of the match due to a concussion.

Mitchell Starc celebrates his five-wicket haul.

After three more dot balls, Starc struck twice in two balls to claim a triple wicket maiden with Kevlon Anderson and Brandon King trudging back to the pavilion before tea on day three.

Anderson’s attempt to leave a Starc in swinger will go down in the hall of fame as one of the worst leaves of all-time as it cannoned into his pad right in front of middle stump.

The scorecard from Starc’s opening over read: W000WW. This was wow indeed.

Starc missed his hat-trick - Mikyle Louis blocked a good length ball - but had the scarcely believable figures of 5-2 from 15 balls when he removed Louis and Shai Hope with the 13th and 15th balls of his spell.

The Louis dismissal was Starc’s 400th wicket in Tests and gave him figures of 4-0 from 2.1 overs that most couldn’t even dream of pulling off on the Playstation. Starc joins Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Nathan Lyon as the only other bowlers to take 400 Test wickets for Australia.

Scott Boland is mobbed by team-mates after his hat-trick.

It was the fastest five-wicket haul in Test cricket by some margin, eclipsing the returns of Ernie Toshack (1947), Stuart Broad (2015) and Scott Boland (2021), who brought up the milestone in 19 deliveries.

When Josh Hazlewood found the edge of West Indian skipper Roston Chase’s bat, the home side were 6-11 after 5.2 overs and in danger of being bowled out for the lowest Test total in history.

Just when you thought this was going to all be about Starc, Boland entered the fray.

After conceding two runs in his first over, Boland tore through the tail, dismissing Justin Greaves, Shamar Joseph and Jomel Warrican in consecutive deliveries. He was mobbed by teammates.

With a Sam Konstas misfield, the West Indies reached 27, one more than the unwanted record belonging to the New Zealand team of 1955, who reached 3-14 before being all out 26 against England.

The West Indies’ lowest Test score of 47 came at this ground 21 years ago against England.

Australia’s previous best bowling performance against a Test nation came in 1932 when they bowled South Africa out for 36.

Starc finished with figures of 6-9 from 7.3 overs, while Boland took 3-2 off two overs.

Days of Test cricket do not get more dramatic than this as Australia sealed a 3-0 series win in the most emphatic fashion possible.

More to come