Matthew Hayden lauded Mitchell Starc as the ‘pink ball magician’ and said that the speedster wrestled back the momentum for Australia on Day 1 of the Adelaide Test against India on December 6, Friday as well. However, Starc wreaked havoc on the Indian batting order as he scalped 6 wickets for just 48 runs.

Speaking to the broadcasters, Hayden said, “He has that scrambled seam delivery that goes across the right-hander, but when he does have that ability—which he did—I must admit I was a little surprised. I’ve never really seen the pink ball swing into the sort of 40th over and so aggressively swing as well. By that stage, he used a really important word, and it’s a bit of an underrated word as well, and that’s ‘momentum.’ It was all in favor of India. A difficult position to come back from in life and sport is those opportunities to wrestle back momentum, and Mitchell Starc did that in only the way he can—when the lights are like the way they are and with that beautiful-colored ball in his hand. He’s just a magician with the Pink Ball.”

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Hayden also said that the bowling performance from Australia on Day 1 was a story of 2 halves as they were restrictive till the first 20 overs as well. However, the veteran also said that the turning point happened in the 35th over when Boland came in and the ball started to swing as well.

“I think Australia bowled in two halves, to be honest. I thought their first maybe 20 overs, they were very conservative. It was like they knew that the pink ball was going to start to swing. And when Scott Boland came around and just started getting into the line of the stumps, that was the turnaround. Around about that 35th over, we saw some of those missiles that Mitchell Starc started. That was 45, 50 overs in, and it started to swing. That’s what earned them the strong position they find themselves in today,” Matthew Hayden concluded.