Starc lifts second hat-trick as Maxwell stakes claim

TEST paceman Mitchell Starc has claimed his second hattrick of the match to bowl NSW to a 171-run victory over Western Australia at Sydney’s Hurstville Oval.

The left-arm paceman became only the eighth player in first class history to take two hat-tricks in the one match — and the first player to do so on Australian soil — as he led NSW to victory over WA to warm up for the Ashes series beginning this month.

Starc is the first player to achieve the feat in 39 years and the only Australian after T.J. Matthews, who did it for Australia against South Africa on English soil in 1912, according to CricInfo stats.

The Warriors innings went into free fall after Test aspirant Shaun Marsh was dismissed in the last over before tea for 91.

Chasing 395, WA lost 10-44 to be dismissed for 223 to give NSW a second win from as many Shield matches.

Meanwhile, Glenn Maxwell may have done enough to persuade national selectors he’s their man for the Ashes, posting another half-century in Victoria’s draw with South Australia. Chasing 348 to win, the Bushrangers survived a perilous final session at the MCG to finish on 8-273.

After scoring 60 in the first innings, Maxwell, 29, delivered another assured knock, cracking two sixes and five fours before being trapped lbw on 64 by a Joe Mennie yorker.

He was the best performed of the leading candidates to bat at No.6 for the Brisbane Test on November 23.

Key rival Hilton Cartwright made a pair of ducks in WA’s Shield clash with NSW.

South Australia’s Jake Lehmann, 25, is a potential bolter, reinforcing his claims with scores of 103 and 93, but he may be seen as too inexperienced to be pitched into the Ashes cauldron.