ICC World Cup 2019 | West Indies bowling attack are like the olden times, says Mitchell Starc
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Australian pacer Mitchell Starc has stated that West Indies' brand of bowling is reminiscent of the fast and ruthless bowling style of the country’s pacers in its golden era. He stated that the result was a big confidence boost and bowling will be crucial in the future matches.
Although the match between the West Indies and Australia was not as low scoring as most of the matches in the quadrennial tournament so far, it was the bowlers that made most of the headlines and the fast bowlers from both sides controlled the game for large parts of the match. The standout performer was, without a doubt, Mitchell Starc, whose impressive five-wicket haul earned his team a crucial victory.Â
Multiple batsmen got hit on the head in an emphatic lesson of bodyline bowling as the barrage of quick, short balls by the West Indian quicks that reduced the Australian top and middle order to 79/5, before a temperamental 73 by Steven Smith and a quickfire 92 by Nathan Coulter-Nile in the latter stages of the match propelled them to a score of 288.
"Yeah, look, it's something to learn from, as I said. It was fast hostile bowling and something to learn from,” Starc remarked.
“They bowled fast and aggressive, and I guess that's West Indies' attacks of old. That's fast, aggressive stuff, up around the nose of the batsman, hitting them on the body or something in the helmet, as well," he added.
In the second innings, the Caribbean batsmen managed to get close to the total before a clinical display by Starc saw him pick up the last 4 wickets as he conceded only two runs in his last 14 balls which restricted the hard-hitting batting lineup to 273/9, fifteen runs short of the target.
"Yeah, the guys probably didn't play it the way they would have liked to, but we've come away with a great result, plenty to learn from with bat, ball and in the field, and credit to them, they bowled fast, aggressive stuff at us for a fair period of that - the opening couple of spells. Sometimes it's just hard to play against, and it's not fun to bat against, so I certainly don't like it, and I much prefer dishing it out," quoted Starc.
In their other match, West Indies had reduced Pakistan to a humiliating 105 after a strong performance by Andre Russell, Jason Holder and Oshane Thomas. Their ruthless bowling has remained the highlight of the tournament so far and if used well may take them far in the tournament.
"It's going to be a huge weapon for them going forward in this World Cup, and yeah, like I said, a great positive for us to come at the end of this game with a really good result for Australia and plenty to learn from,” concluded Starc.
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