Australia vs India: Shane Warne critical of Mitchell Starc for sending down 16 byes in Adelaide

Australia were never the favourites before the series began. But on the first day, they had India down at 41/4 which garnered a lot of hopes of a famous win. But unlike the Aussie, they let the Indian tail wag and the visitors went on to score 250 runs in the first innings. While many are blaming the Australian batsmen for the loss, the former cricketer Shane Warne has come down hard at Mitchell Starc for not cleaning up the tail which he is known for especially in the whites.

With India down and out at 127/6 Warne expected the left-arm pacer to wreak havoc in the opposition camp with his deadly yorkers. But he failed to do so and to make things worse, gave a tough time to his skipper Tim Paine behind the stumps sending down 16 byes alone in the second innings. In a game where 31 runs was the winning margin, Australia conceded a total of 36 extras in second innings as opposed to 1 in the first.

Out of those, 21 were byes as the 136-year-old record was almost broken. Australia, at home, have conceded most 22 byes in Sydney back in 1882 and Tim Paine almost became the owner of an unwanted record courtesy his ace fast bowler.

Starc wasn’t at his best

Shane Warne, while speaking to Fox Cricket, pointed out how Mitchell Starc’s wayward bowling in the second innings hurt the Aussies big time in the context of the game. He also felt bad for the skipper Paine as all those byes went against his name despite doing a fair job behind the stumps.

“If you add in the extras to that, 37 (36) extras — 24 (21) of them were byes and I think a missed stumping went for four byes, but I reckon the rest were just about Mitchell Starc bowling wides. They should’ve been wides, it wasn’t fair on Tim Paine to go for byes, he had no chance of stopping them.

“But 37 (36) extras and that many wides from our No. 1 bowler in Australia and leader of the attack bowling wides down the leg side, Australia lose by what 31 runs, extras 37 (36) and there’s 20-odd that go down to the fence with the new ball,” Warne said.

He also went on to say that India should’ve never crossed 200 in the first innings and blamed Starc for not being able to skittle their tail. “So I just think Australia, yes their batting wasn’t very good, but 6-127 new rock not far away Mitchell Starc with it, he should’ve knocked over the tail there,” the best leggie of his playing days added.

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