‘Sometimes it’s nice to see ball dominate bat’: Mitchell Starc after Australia beat South Africa at Eden Gardens | Cricket News

Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood were the wreckers in chief for Australia after the Kangaroos bowled excellently in overcast conditions and reduced South Africa to 24/4 after Protea captain Bavuma won the toss and elected to bat.
However, David Miller’s rescue act took the South Africans to a respectable score of 212 but it was not enough as Pat Cummins made sure his team didn’t let the opportunity slip away in a low-scoring run-chase against South Africa in the semifinals on Thursday.
The captain had to bail out his team with the bat as he and Mitchell Starc got the Aussies home three wickets in pursuit of a 213-run target.
After the match, the Aussie seamer spoke at length about the low-scoring thriller and the pitch at Eden Gardens.Most Read
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” I think it was a tricky wicket throughout and I guess different phases of pressure for both teams throughout the game. So, yeah, I was pretty calm. I think Pat was pretty calm as well. And whilst it was pretty close, we had plenty of time. So, nice to squeeze past and make to a final,” Starc said while speaking at the post-match press conference.
However, Starc was a bit surprised at the nature of the surface and said, “Yeah, I’m certainly not going to say I’m one to read pitches and know what they do. I mean, training here the last few days, the practice wicket certainly turned a lot. From all reports, I think the wicket we played on has been used a few times so no surprise that it did turn. It is probably a little surprising that it did seam around a little bit whilst I said before it was pretty inconsent pace wise, I think average first inning scores here have been sort of around 300 mark or a little bit higher. So yeah, a little bit surprising but you know sometimes it’s nice to see ball dominate bat.”
On a personal front with the ball, Starc, who picked 3/34, expressed happiness with his spell and said, “Yeah, that’s probably not been the tournament I would have liked from the get go but nice to step up in a big game. And I think our power play was probably what got us on our way. And there were other key moments through the day with bat and ball, but to start the game like that with Joshie [Hazelwood] and I, power play wickets have probably been not our strong suit through the tournament so it’s nice to have a power play of what two for 18 or something like that so the way Josh bowled throughout to finish two for 12 was incredible, and then Trav with bat and ball. I think a lot of guys in the field as well, the way Davey stepped up in the field and led example. You could probably name everyone at different circumstances through the day to really step up in a big game.”