Mitchell Starc has been menacing England with the ball in this Ashes series. Now he’s doing damage with the bat, too. At stumps on Day 3 of the second test, England were teetering on 134-6 in their second innings and still needed to score 43 runs to make Australia bat again. Starc was voted player of the match for his 10-wicket haul in Australia’s thumping eight-wicket win in the series opener at Perth last month. Now he’s in line for another award in the day-night test in Brisbane.
After taking six wickets in England’s first innings of 334 on Days 1 and 2, Starc scored an innings-high 77 as Australia responded with 511 on Saturday afternoon and then took two wickets in the night session.
England’s hopes now rest on skipper Ben Stokes, who will resume Sunday on 4.
The 35-year-old Starc made England’s bowlers toil all afternoon in sunny, subtropical conditions at the Gabba as he led Australia to a 177-run first-innings lead.
With the lights on and the pink ball starting to move around on the third night of the match, Starc took the crucial wicket of top-ranked Joe Root (15) to have England reeling at 123-5, still 54 runs in arrears.
He added the wicket of Jamie Smith in his next over as England slipped to 128-6.
Scott Boland and Michael Neser combined to take the first four wickets for Australia after Starc, for the first time in the series, didn’t take a wicket in the first over of the innings.
Boland removed Ben Duckett (15) and Harry Brook (15) and Neser took two sharp return catches to dismiss Ollie Pope (26) and Zak Crawley (44).
