Mitchell Starc joined the 400-wicket club in the most dramatic of fashion as he blew West Indies’ top order away including a triple-wicket opening over on the third day at Sabina Park and went on to take the fastest five-wicket haul from the start of an innings in Test history.
In his 100th Test, Starc produced one of the greatest opening overs. He removed John Campbell first ball, the fourth time in his career he had struck with the opening delivery of an innings, when the left-hander edged a perfect outswinger to substitute wicketkeeper Josh Inglis, who was standing in for the concussed Alex Carey.
Four balls later, debutant Kevlon Anderson shoulder arms as the ball swung back to strike his shin in front of middle stump, yet he reviewed the plumbest of lbws. Next delivery, another one curved back to take Brandon King’s inside edge and demolish the stumps. It was the sixth time in Test history a team had been 0 for 3.
Mikyle Louis survived the hat-trick ball at the start of Starc’s second over, but fittingly his 400th wicket came with another trademark inswinger as he trapped Louis lbw, becoming the fourth Australian bowler to the landmark after Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Nathan Lyon.
The extraordinary scenes continued when, two balls later, he added Shai Hope lbw to bring up a five-wicket haul in just 15 deliveries, the fastest from the start of an innings – beating the previous record of jointly held by Ernie Toshack, Stuart Broad and Scott Boland by four deliveries
Starc had already established himself as the king of pink-ball cricket having dominated the format in Australia. This is the team’s first day-night Test overseas.