Mitchell Starc stuns West Indies after Cameron Green's horror start — quick hits from third Test

Australia Broadcast Center

11 hours ago

Mitchell Starc's stunning spell has helped Australia forget about a horror start to day three, although Sam Konstas's fielding briefly halted the party.
Here are the quick hits from a wild conclusion to the third and final Test in Jamaica.
Alex Carey copped a brutal bouncer to the helmet first up from Alzarri Joseph under lights on day two.
He was clearly rattled, but shook it off, although he only faced two more balls before charging the rapid seamer and nicking off.
Before play on day three, it was revealed Carey had failed a concussion test overnight. Luckily for Australia, limited-overs wicketkeeper Josh Inglis was in the squad and ready to take the gloves for the final innings.
It was Inglis's second stint as an injury replacement in the series, after stepping in for Steve Smith in the first Test due to a dislocated finger.
After making it through a brutal night session with wickets tumbling all around him, Cameron Green had earned a session of easier batting in the sunshine on day three.
Green needed just three runs to become the second-highest run-scorer for the series and eight for his second half-century in as many Tests.
It was all set up for a match- and potentially career-defining innings as he tried to forge his way as a Test number three.
Instead, the big West Australian confidently shouldered arms to the first delivery of the day from Shamar Joseph, only to see the ball seam back sharply and collect his off stump.
Even for a man so renowned for his ability to strike early in an innings, it was something truly remarkable.
Playing his 100th Test and running in on 396 Test wickets, Mitchell Starc found his range straight away on day three, producing one that jagged away enough to catch John Campbell's edge and claim the second first-ball dismissal of the day.
Just four balls later, Starc had his second, when debutant Kevlon Anderson left one that swung back at him viciously and thudded into his front pad. He inexplicably sent it upstairs, but there was no way it would be overturned.
Brandon King came and went even faster than Anderson, driving at his first ball, which flew straight through the gate and into his stumps.
The West Indies' innings, only six balls old, was in tatters and Starc had produced a scarcely believable opening stanza.
On a hat-trick and with 399 career wickets to his name, Starc had just become only the second bowler to take three wickets in the opening over of an innings after India's Irfan Pathan.
Since the first Test in 1877, there have been more than 2,000 matches played but never before has a bowler taken a five-wicket haul faster than Starc on day three.
His fourth wicket of the day — taken before he had even conceded a run — came when Mikyle Louis was caught plumb in front to another pitched-up, dramatic in-swinger.
It was the 400th wicket of his career and Starc held the pink ball aloft to mark his entrance into the most salubrious of bowling clubs in his 100th Test.
Unbelievably, just two balls later, Starc had made history once more.
Once again, a West Indian pad was almost blown off by yet another Starc thunderbolt. Shai Hope sent the decision upstairs but nothing was saving him from becoming Starc's record-breaking victim.
Completed in just 15 deliveries, Starc had delivered the fastest five-wicket haul in Test match history, bettering the previous best of 19.
On day two, Sam Konstas made his biggest contribution to the third Test in the field with an excellent run-out of Justin Greaves.
On day three he fumbled just about everything that came his way and cost his team a slice of history.
He dropped two catchable balls at slip that could have handed Starc his sixth wicket, before some sloppy ground fielding allowed a costly single.
West Indies looked set to surpass the lowest-ever Test score of 26 when they reached that mark just six wickets down in the 13th over, but Scott Boland's hat-trick left Australia needing one wicket to consign the Caribbean team to a tie for that ignominy.
Starc steamed in for the 15th over and found the outside edge of Alzarri Joseph again, with the ball rolling out to Konstas at gully.
He crabbed over to it, but the ball snuck under his fingertips and allowed a run. The Australians were clearly aware of it, as third slip Cameron Green threw his hands onto his head in dismay.
While it doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things, it was an unfortunate note for the 19-year-old to end his tour on.