Veteran Australia pacer Mitchell Starc added that one should not necessarily change with plans to achieve success. The Australia pace bowler ran through India’s top order to pick up a five-wicket haul to keep the ODI series alive. Australia handed India a massive 10-wicket defeat in the second match in Visakhapatnam to level the three-match series 1-1 as well., courtesy of Starc, who returned with 5/53 in eight overs as well.
“My plan hasn’t changed for 13 years: bowl full, hit the stumps, try and swing it,” Mitchell Starc said after Australia’s win. “That’s been my role for a long time, to try and get wickets up front in the Powerplay. “At times that means I’m probably more expensive, but I’m trying to bring in all modes of dismissal. So it’s certainly not a new game plan these last two games. When you’ve got a powerhouse batting unit that India do have, if you can take wickets in the Powerplay, it means we sort of control the game in some respects, which is what we did.”
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“We now move on to Chennai, where we’ve got a chance (in) the decider … once we get past that game and then it’s probably more of a focus on the World Cup,” Mitchell Starc concluded. “There’s parts of this series where the World Cup will be in the back of your mind, but I think predominantly for this group, we’ve still got a chance to win a one-day series in India, which is pretty special.”
However, after the onslaught of Mitchell Starc, it was Travis Head and Mitchell Marsh who both smashed the fifties and sealed the deal as well.
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Steve Smith said after the comfortable win: “Was a quick one. Only 37 overs you don’t see that too often. Starc, with the new ball, put them under pressure. It was a nice start to the day. I didn’t know how the wicket was going to play. There was no real total in mind. It was about going out there and executing our skills and hopefully putting Indians under pressure, fortunately we were able to do that. It was one of those days and we were on the right side of it. Just that kind of a day when the nicks went to hand. The way Head and Marsh played at the start, they just kept going and we were able to bounce back after the last game. Don’t know about the catch of the century. Nice that I held on today. Fortunate I was able to hang on to it. It was a big wicket, Hardik is an unbelievable player.”
