Mitchell Starc’s delivery to dismiss Indian batter deemed ‘ball of the century’ by former AUS batter: ‘Unplayable’
Ravichandran Ashwin played a few sweetly-timed attacking strokes in a brief cameo during the first day of the Adelaide Test match in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, but his stay at the crease was brought to a dramatic end as Mitchell Starc bowled a searing yorker that crushed into his pads and saw him depart after an entertaining 22 off 22.
It was a fine delivery by Starc, deep into the first innings, which swung loads out of his hand before pitching at Ashwin’s toes and found him all squared up and in no position to try and fend it off. Bowled at a terrific pace and with prodigious movement, it was a remarkable piece of bowling and received credit from Mark Waugh on commentary.
The Australian legend was overawed by the quality of the delivery, and didn’t hold back in his appreciation of it: “The ball of the century almost … that was almost unplayable,” said Waugh on the broadcast for Fox Sports.
Ashwin did choose to review it, more out of a punt than any serious consideration of there being any chance of it being not out, with only four wickets remaining and all three reviews still in hand for India. Hawkeye then showed the shape that Starc’s delivery took, bending back a long way into the right-hander and leaving him with no chance.
‘One of the best reviews I’ve seen…’
Former England captain Michael Vaughan still took the opportunity to rub salt into Ashwin’s wounds, sarcastically calling it “That’s one of the best reviews I’ve seen,” and adding on “It may have been going under,” while on comms duty.
Starc repeated the trick three balls later against Harshit Rana, setting him up with a wide one outside off stump and a bumper, before a fuller ball, not quite at yorker length but close enough, snuck through his defences to castle Rana’s stumps and give Starc a five-fer. The tall left-hander took the final wicket of the innings as well, dismissing Nitish Rana to finish with career-best figures of 6-48.
Earlier in the day, Starc had gotten off to the perfect start, taking a wicket with the first ball of the innings for the third time in his Test career as he bowled a full swinging delivery to get Yashasvi Jaiswal LBW. He also picked up the crucial wickets of KL Rahul and Virat Kohli in a burst before the tea break to break the back of the Indian batting.
