Tigers dig in, Starc back in rhythm

PACEMAN Mitchell Starc picked up a couple of wickets and found some form, in his quest for a Test recall, on the opening day of the Sheffield Shield match at Sydney’s Drummoyne Oval.

Batting first yesterday after Matthew Wade won the toss, Tasmania made 6-258, Beau Webster top-scoring with 65.

Starc (2-36 off 22 overs) had Wade (20) caught in the middle session and trapped Callum Jewell lbw with a classic yorker in the final hour. He utilised reverse swing and bowled with good pace, beating the bat on several occasions.

“Starcy, at the end there, was very tough around the wicket with the reverse swing,” Webster said.

Test spinner Nathan Lyon (1-69 off 22) had a good workout in his first match since the Ashes series.

Left-arm speedster Starc, who played just the fourth Test in the Ashes, took 1-129 in his first NSW hitout of the season against Queensland in the opening shield round.

Yesterday, he bowled with perseverance on a wicket which, until late in the day, offered him little. Starc sent down eight tidy but wicketless overs for 12 runs in the opening session.

Openers Jordan Silk (41) and Alex Doolan (58) put on a 100-run partnership, but were both caught at slip by Trent Copeland off Sean Abbott (2-41). Wade started well, cruising to 20 off 27 balls, taking three boundaries off Lyon.

The Tigers’ captain gifted Starc his first wicket with a horrid-looking mistimed shot straight to mid-off. Starc fired out Jewell with the old ball.

“Not long before the 80over mark, it started to go [reverse] a little bit. Starcy started to find a good rhythm,” Abbott said. “I thought Starcy dug deep pretty well there in a pretty important spell.”

Webster said NSW probably made the right call to stick with the old ball because it was reversing.

“It was tough to score and quite dangerous there with Starcy coming down the breeze,” Webster said.