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Starc on track for World Cup history

3 minute read

Mitchell Starc is set to create history at the Cricket World Cup by becoming the first player to top the wicket-taking charts in separate tournaments.

MITCHELL STARC
MITCHELL STARC Picture: Jordan Mansfield/Getty Images

Mitchell Starc is on track to create World Cup history after his four scalps against England took him back to the top of the tournament's wicket-taker's charts.

Just months after there were calls for his head after a poor home summer, Starc now has 19 wickets at the World Cup at 18.26 for first-placed Australia.

It follows on from his 22 victims in the 2015 event, where he was named player of the tournament with the most wickets alongside New Zealand's Trent Boult.

No bowler in World Cup history has topped the charts twice, while Glenn McGrath's 2007 record of 26 wickets in a single tournament is also under threat.

Notably it comes after Starc's most difficult home summer, where the likes of Shane Warne called for him to be axed after he seemingly lost his rhythm.

"I had a few months to reassess my cricket and how I approached it and that sort of thing," Starc said.

"None of that (criticism) has really mattered to me.

"It's the guys in the change room and the 15 players and staff that we're all playing for.

"It's those moments (with the team that matter) and I will take the criticism from those guys and get better and move forward as a group."

Starc's bowling coach at NSW, Andre Adams, revealed to AAP last month that the left-armer had focused on re-finding his 2015 touch in the lead up to the tournament in the UK.

Sidelined by a pectoral injury, Starc re-watched footage of his last World Cup campaign to try and regain the same feel in his action.

The approach clearly worked, with the 29-year-old again among the most dangerous opening and death bowlers in the competition.

He also provided arguably the ball of the tournament on Tuesday, with a reverse-swinging yorker that clean bowled Ben Stokes and ended any hope of an English comeback in Australia's 64-run win.

"To execute that ball exactly how I wanted to was pleasing for me," Starc said.

"I think the last time we played one another at this ground was that one that came back at him.

"He's a fantastic player and he's one of their key batters ... We knew while he was batting that we couldn't just rest up.

"We had to try and take that wicket. Fortunately got one through the gate but he was batting fantastically well."

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