Relentless Starc turns Gabba into England’s Ashes Death Star

3 months ago 19

Brisbane: A quirk of Brisbane Test matches is the Saturday presence of the “Gabbatroopers”, a bunch of spectators dressed in the uniforms of the Empire and serenaded by trumpet renditions of the Star Wars theme.

As Mitchell Starc turned in yet another damaging contribution to Australia’s Ashes defence, this time with the bat to set up a night-time session with the ball, England’s bedraggled bowlers could be forgiven for thinking they were battling Darth Vader, himself, with the Gabba standing in for the Death Star.

Mitchell Starc during another Ashes star turn, this time with the willow at the Gabba.

So thoroughly did Starc torment Ben Stokes and his team that, in combination with Scott Boland and Brendan Doggett, Australia’s innings lingered for more than half the day and ended just as the floodlights took over from the sun. As one commentator put it, England had been taken to the Starc side.

It didn’t appear likely that Australia would make it all the way to 511, their second-highest total in Test cricket without any of their 11 making a century.

Stokes procured an outside edge from Michael Neser early on and Alex Carey also snicked off when Gus Atkinson took the new ball. At that stage, the lead was 82, and a couple of hours of clear daylight remained – plenty enough for England to get back into the contest.

But Starc has always possessed as much batting ability as any lower-order batsman in world cricket. If anything, he has probably undersold himself with the bat – too often falling early when, with a little more application, he could be averaging closer to 30 than 20 in Tests.

There have been occasions, not least in India in 2013 when he clattered 99 at Mohali, when Starc has showcased his combination of a powerful hitting arc – derived at least partly from a pure golf swing – and plentiful game sense to choose which balls to defend or attack.

This one, with the match still finely balanced, was clearly a juncture at which Starc decided it was time to knuckle down. When joined by Boland, Starc was initially intent on simply batting time, turning down singles and only occasionally looking to find the boundary.

He could see not only the sun beginning to set, but also how tired England were from an innings that ultimately crept into its 118th over. Every time a ball beat the bat, or an edge skewed wide of a fielder, Stokes reacted as though no captain had ever suffered a bigger dose of bad luck: Starc resolved to keep him out there.

Gradually, and in the manner of the old-fashioned Test batting almost completely absent from the series so far, Starc and Boland got more comfortable and started to score more freely. Their job was made easier by how Stokes more or less gave up on dismissing Starc, spreading the field and uncharacteristically letting things drift.

Partly this was because of the heat of the Gabba, the length of the innings, and also through the hard work of Jake Weatherald, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith and Carey before Starc came to the middle. In the Seven commentary box, Simon Katich pointed to the first session on day two.

“Ben Stokes – you can’t fault his efforts and the fact that he leads from the front, but yesterday required leadership to bring them in after about half an hour of the rubbish they served up and say, ‘Boys this is not good enough’,” Katich said.

“We’ve bowled too short, too wide, let’s just keep it disciplined for a period of time and build some pressure that way. The problem was, that happened at the break, and then they started up after the break with some discipline, but it was too late – that horse had bolted.”

As the tea break neared, Starc opened his shoulders with a series of rasping drives, and when the second session resumed he went to 50 with a crisp slog sweep from the sparingly used spin of Will Jacks.

Ben Stokes takes the catch to dismiss Starc, despite a near collission with Ben Duckett.

Briefly, a century looked possible – Starc is certainly good enough to have one, backing that up is how he surpassed Stuart Broad (who had a top score of 169) for the most runs in Test history from number nine in the order. Starc looked disconsolate when he eventually skewed a catch to mid-off, Stokes and Ben Duckett narrowly avoiding a collision as the chance was taken.

But his combination of skill and good sense had turned a day of some optimism for England into one of shattered hopes for the tourists, and also inspired Boland and Doggett to add their own pesky stand of 20 before the final wicket fell.

That partnership also meant this was the first time since 1992, and only the third time ever, that all 11 members of the Australian side had made it to double figures. It had been an ensemble effort, though there could be no doubting that the starring role had been, once again, played by Starc.

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