Mitchell Starc was thrilled that Australia were the first team to book their place in the semi-finals of the ICC Men’s World Cup 2019 following their victory over England at Lord’s.
Despite already having qualified for the semi-finals – Starc says there will be no let up from Australia as they take on New Zealand and South Africa in their final two group games.
He said: “There’s a lot of cricket to come before semi-final time. We’ve got two really important games but playing here at Lord’s where the final’s going to be has given us confidence,” he said.
“We’ve got another game here against New Zealand, which is going to be tough. They’re playing some fantastic cricket and they’ve really gone under the radar. Nobody’s really spoken too much about them and they keep winning games.
“So they’ve got a really strong side, Kane Williamson is their lynchpin in the middle and they have bowlers who swing the ball, so it’s another big game but we’ve cemented our spot in the semis and we want to try and finish as high as we can building towards the final series of matches.”
Starc was happy to share the bowling laurels with his more unsung fellow left-armer, Jason Behrendorff, who took a five-for in only his second World Cup match.
“Dorff bowled awesome, beautifully, and deserved his five wickets - and it’s great to see him do so well here at Lord’s against England. I’ve bowled a fair bit with Mitchell Johnson in the past and this showed again today that there’s no reason why you can’t play two left armers when the pitch and match-ups suit.
“Dorff actually asked me if there was anything of note about the wicket here and, to be honest, I didn’t have much for him as I haven’t been here for about four years.”
They key to the victory, felt Starc, was the way the Australian bowlers got their lengths right in the England innings. “After watching them, as a bowling group we all wanted to bowl a bit fuller and make them drive the ball, and I think we did that really well. It was a positive for us to bowl them out and win the game fairly strongly.”
With typical modesty, he was not making a big deal of the key delivery, a reverse swing yorker, that skittled Ben Stokes just as England’s dangerous all-rounder looked particularly threatening.
“He’s a fantastic player, one of their key batters. He nearly got them home against Sri Lanka and so we knew while he was batting that we couldn’t rest up. Fortunately, I got one through the gate,” shrugged Starc.
Some were hailing it as the delivery of the tournament so far, but Starc insisted: “I’ve got a pretty simple one-day plan and for me its all about execution.
“To execute that ball exactly how I wanted and for it to result the way it did was pleasing for me - but it was pleasing to contribute to the whole group.”
Start also laughed off an incident at breakfast in his team hotel when a supporter ‘sledged’ him while he was going to eat his three poached eggs.
“Some bloke in a suit was having a go about my strapping tape on my elbow and about me eating too much and how it was going to affect my bowling!” smiled Starc.
“He had a bit of a click at me - all good fun. I was still half-asleep, didn’t think much of it. It’s all been good fun around the tour, it’s all part and parcel of a World Cup!”
(with ICC inputs)
