Relentless Starc turns Gabba into England’s Ashes Death Star

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, first with the bat to set up a night-time defeat of Joe Root with the ball, England’s bedraggled cricketers could be forgiven for thinking they were battling Darth Vader himself, with the Gabba standing in for the Death Star.

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.

Once there, Starc’s relentless innings was mirrored by Boland and Michael Neser with the ball. Their groupings were tightly packed around the danger zone near off stump, a total contrast to the polka dot patterns put up by the England quicks. After Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley started brightly against the brand-new ball, it was precision most merciless.

Ben Duckett was bowled by a ball that skidded through low, then Ollie Pope and Zak Crawley were both snaffled by Neser when trying to drive. Root was then pushed back by Starc before edging a quicker, fuller delivery he was late to catch up on.

When Boland flummoxed Harry Brook with a delivery of perfect line, and Starc did likewise to Jamie Smith, Ben Stokes was left with Will Jacks and the tail to try to conjure a day four miracle from 43 runs behind.

It hadn’t appeared likely that Australia would make it all the way to 511, their second-highest total in Test cricket to take place 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 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 shone. He has the 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 knock, 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 indiscipline of the bowlers in the first session on day two.

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.

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. From lunchtime on day two in Perth, Bazball has not stood up to the time-honoured Test match pressure exerted by an Australian team still lacking Pat Cummins.

While Nathan Lyon still has reason to curse his omission here, the number of contributors has made up for the absence of a quality spin bowler. This was only the third time in history that all 11 members of an Australian batting lineup reached double figures, and under lights, the seamers hunted like a wolf pack.

It had truly been an ensemble effort to rank with the cast of the Star Wars trilogy. But there could be no doubting that the starring role was, once again, played by Starc.

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