There was talk of cutting the match ball in half, but Scott Boland is more than happy for Mitchell Starc to keep it after the left-armer sealed his spot among Test greats to lead Australia to one of their craziest Test wins.
Boland became the 10th Australian man to take a Test hat-trick after Starc had demolished the West Indies top order with five wickets in his first 15 deliveries, including three in the opening over, to put Australia on course for a thumping 176-run victory in the third Test in Jamaica.
Starc’s career-best 6-9 and Boland’s 3-2 rolled the Windies for a record low of 27, just one run more than the lowest total in Test history, with a Sam Konstas misfield in the gully off what turned out to be the second last ball of the match allowing the hosts to sneak past New Zealand’s 26 all out against England in 1955.
The left-armer clean bowled Jayden Seales to end the game with his next delivery, capping a special week that saw him become just the second Australian fast bowler after Glenn McGrath (563 wickets in 124 Tests) to play 100 Tests and take 400 career wickets.
Such was Starc and Boland’s dominance that captain Pat Cummins didn’t need to bowl himself in the second innings, with Starc completing the fastest five-wicket haul in Test history when he trapped Shai Hope just 15 balls into his opening spell.
He also enhanced his first-over reputation, striking three times – including John Campbell first ball – to leave West Indies in disarray at 3-0. Since his debut in 2011, no bowler has taken more wickets in the first over of an innings than Starc’s 23.
“He was on fire,” Cummins said post-match after leading Australia to a 3-0 series sweep. “A lot of the chat leading into this week was how resilient and professional you need to be to make 100 Tests, but that’s kind of the ‘Starcy’ I always remember playing alongside.
“He can tear a game open by himself, really, in the matter of a couple of overs.
“He can do it in any format – that was amazing. I went from feeling like we were in pretty good position to the game just being ours in the space of five minutes.”
Boland also said he felt “nervy” with 204 on the board but that feeling quickly evaporated once Starc had the ball in his hand.
“I felt that if they got a pretty good start, they were going to be in the game, but (Starc) stopped that pretty early,” he said.
“We’ve seen him take one wicket the first over like 20 something times and for him to get three in the first over really killed the game.”
Despite taking six wickets for the match and the first Test hat-trick by an Australian since Peter Siddle’s memorable birthday effort against England at the Gabba in 2011, Boland faces the prospect of missing the side’s next Test when the Ashes get underway in Perth in late November.
“I’m playing with three of the best fast bowlers Australia has ever had, so I’m happy to be in behind them,” Boland said.
“It’s going to extend all of our careers if we can all stay on the park and keep bowling really well, so I’m happy with that.
“I know I’m not going to play every game so I can be really specific my training, and then when I get to a Test match I’m going to play, I’m ready to go.”
Boland said he felt some extra pressure in the lead up to the match after Australian selectors left a fit Nathan Lyon out of the side for the first time in 12 years.
But their call was vindicated when all 40 wickets in the match fell to pace in a little over two days.
“I didn’t think about it when I got on the field, but I did think of it maybe a couple days out,” Boland said.
“It’s pretty brave call to leave out a spinner and go four quicks, especially when your spinner is Nathan Lyon. Other teams might do it, but I don’t think they’ve got the spin quality of him.
“So I think it was a pretty brave call from the selectors and hopefully I repaid them.”
Qantas Tour of the West Indies
First Test: Australia won by 159 runs
Second Test: Australia won by 133 runs
Third Test: Australia won by 176 runs
Australia Test squad: Pat Cummins (c), Sean Abbott, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Sam Konstas, Matt Kuhnemann, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Beau Webster
West Indies Test squad: Roston Chase (c), Jomel Warrican (vc), Kevlon Anderson, Kraigg Brathwaite, John Campbell, Keacy Carty, Justin Greaves, Shai Hope, Tevin Imlach, Alzarri Joseph, Shamar Joseph, Brandon King, Johann Layne, Mikyle Louis, Anderson Phillip, Jayden Seales
First T20I: July 20, Kingston, Jamaica (July 21, 10am AEST)
Second T20I: July 22, Kingston, Jamaica (July 23, 10am AEST)
Third T20I: July 25, Basseterre, St Kitts (July 26, 9am AEST)
Fourth T20I: July 26, Basseterre, St Kitts (July 27, 9am AEST)
Fifth T20I: July 28, Basseterre, St Kitts (July 29, 9am AEST)
West Indies T20 squad: TBC
Australia’s T20 squad: Mitchell Marsh (c), Sean Abbott, Xavier Bartlett, Cooper Connolly, Tim David, Ben Dwarshius, Nathan Ellis, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Cameron Green, Aaron Hardie, Josh Inglis, Matt Kuhnemann, Glenn Maxwell, Mitch Owen, Matthew Short, Adam Zampa
