‘DON’T STUFF AROUND WITH MOTHER CRICKET’: STARC’S PARTING SHOT AFTER AUSTRALIA GET ENGLAND THROUGH

Mitchell Starc invoked a phrase beloved by Justin Langer to flatly reject English suspicions that Australia seriously considered easing off Scotland to force the elimination of Jos Buttler’s team from the Twenty20 World Cup.

Pushed into a corner by some sloppy fielding and a strong start with the ball by the Scots, the Australians switched on the afterburners in the final seven overs of the game in St Lucia to remain unbeaten and help England through to the Super Eights.

In the aftermath of the Jonny Bairstow stumping at Lord’s last year, England Test coach Brendon McCullum had remarked of Australia that “I can’t imagine we’ll be having a beer with them any time soon”. Twelve months on, England’s white ball coach Matthew Mott should consider sending a case of thank-you champagne to Marcus Stoinis (59, 29 balls) and Travis Head (68, 49 balls).

England’s progression may even have saved the jobs of former Australian women’s head coach Mott and skipper Buttler, who each entered the cup under considerable pressure following a wretched ODI World Cup defence in India last year.

With nothing to gain from the final pool game, Josh Hazlewood had toyed with the possibility of playing a part in England’s elimination, although head coach Andrew McDonald and senior fast man Pat Cummins were far less amenable to the idea. Starc resorted to Langer’s line about “Mother Cricket” to put a full stop on the episode.

“You don’t stuff around with Mother Cricket and try to worry about other results,” Starc said. “We’re here to win games. England are now on the other side of the draw, so it really doesn’t make that much difference for the next three games. That was blown right out of proportion.”

England had a nervous enough time making it onto the field to beat Namibia after a three-hour rain delay, when a washout would have eliminated Buttler’s team. As it was, an ultimately comfortable victory left their fate in Australian hands.

“We’ve overcome that net run rate, and we’ve overcome the challenges that have been put in front of us,” Bairstow said. “And as a group, we’ve stuck together really tightly. That Australia game was a tough game and they outplayed us in that, fair play to them.”

When they sat down in their team hotel in Antigua to watch events to the south in St Lucia, England’s players were first greeted by the news that Australia had rested two of their leading pacemen: Hazlewood and Cummins.

‘No, we were just terrible.’

Mitchell Starc when asked if there were any excuses for Australia’s fielding

Ashton Agar opened the bowling for Mitchell Marsh, and the left-arm spinner proved a pricey experiment; Agar and Glenn Maxwell’s eight overs went for no less than 83 on an equable surface, a large contributor to Scotland’s total.

Meanwhile, a rare wicketless outing for Starc was made possible by the grassing of catches from three consecutive balls – the first when Adam Zampa missed a chance on the boundary, before Marsh and then wicketkeeper Matthew Wade shelled consecutive opportunities from Maxwell’s bowling.

That a wicket followed the very next ball, Matt Cross clumping a full toss to deep mid-wicket, did not obscure the fact it was a slipshod display by the Australians after a trio of sharp performances to confirm qualification for the Super Eights. Six catches went down in all.

When asked if there were any excuses for the fielding, Starc said: “No, we were just terrible. We were certainly off the mark in the field with dropped catches and probably some other areas that were a bit sloppy as well. [It’s] good to get that stuff out of the way, and now we’re into the pointy end.”

Scotland’s discipline with the ball would mirror their endeavour with the bat. David Warner was gone early, Marsh did not take long to follow, and Maxwell was confounded by a classic piece of left-arm spin by Mark Watt – turning just enough to take the off bail.

With 10 overs remaining, the Australians needed all of 107 runs; with seven to go, they still needed 89. Stoinis, who did not bowl, signalled the charge with a pair of sixes and then a boundary in the 14th over, before Head swatted three sixes from as many legal deliveries in the 16th.

Head and then Stoinis were out before the job was completely done. But they did so in the knowledge that the muscular and creative Tim David (24 not out off 14 balls) was waiting in the wings to mop up most of the final 40 runs – aided by a drop from Chris Sole with three runs still required.

So Buttler’s team qualified because Australia won handily, thus upholding the spirit of cricket in English eyes. They may meet again before this tournament is over.

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