Mitchell Starc obliterated the West Indies in a record-breaking performance in his 100th Test to ensure Australia completed a clean sweep, blasting out the first five wickets in just 15 deliveries.
It was the quickest anyone has taken to snare five wickets in the 148 years of Test cricket with Starc bamboozling the Windies top order with a blistering display of top-class pace bowling at Sabina Park in Jamaica.
The 35-year-old left-armer had the pink ball swinging and seaming around as the home side collapsed to be 5.7 in just the fifth over of their run-chase. He finished with 6-9 from 7.3 overs in one of the finest bowling displays seen in Test cricket.
They never recovered and were bowled out for 27, well short of their target of 204 runs after the Aussies had been dismissed for 121 in their second innings after Alzarri Joseph claimed 5-27.
The Windies’ score was their lowest ever, 20 shy of the previous low watermark set against England in 2005, and they only just managed to avoid the record for all countries set by New Zealand 70 years ago.
Starc took just 15 balls to get five wickets, breaking the record set by another Australian left-armer, Ernie Toshack, against India in 1947 and matched by Stuart Broad when he ripped through the Aussies in 2015 and Scott Boland, when he returned the favour on debut at the MCG four years ago.
Boland etched his name into the record books again when he became the 10th Australian to claim a Test hat-trick, producing a peach of a delivery to bowl tailender Jomel Warrican through the gate, triggering even more scenes of celebration among the tourists.
Cameron Green did not add to his overnight score of 42, bowled when he shouldered arms to the first ball of day three, and the tail only added 22 as they wobbled from 6-99.
In difficult batting conditions, former Australian batter Greg Blewett said he thought the Windies were an outside chance of reeling in the victory target, but not for long.
“It was all blown away in about five minutes by Mitchell Starc. I haven’t seen him bowl a better opening spell,” he said.
“It was absolutely frightening. Running in, bowling 145km/h, swinging that pink ball. It was just complete devastation.”
Former Windies star Carlos Brathwaite described the batting as “abysmal”.
Starc started the carnage with the first ball of the innings when John Campbell was caught behind by Josh Inglis, substituting for Alex Carey with the gloves.
Kevlon Anderson wasted a review in comical fashion when he was trapped in front without playing a shot to a Starc in-swinger that was shown to be cannoning into middle stump and when Brandon King was bowled for a golden duck, the Windies were 3-0 after the very first over.
It was only the second time in Test history that a bowler had claimed three scalps in the opening over of an innings.
Shai Hope managed to make two runs before he also burned a review after Starc rapped him on the pads and when Mikyle Louis suffered the same fate on four, he at least walked without getting the third umpire to embarrass him any further as he became the 400th wicket of the milestone man’s career.
At that point Starc had figures of 5-2, with the only runs off him coming off the outside edge of Hope’s bat and through the slips.
His figures could have been even better but for Sam Konstas putting down two sharp chances at third slip.
In all, four of the West Indies top five were dismissed for ducks, with Louis the only one to trouble the scorers with a four when he edged Hazlewood to the boundary.
Josh Hazlewood also picked up one wicket in the collapse, getting Roston Chase caught behind and denying Starc the shot at all 10 wickets as they finished the first session at 6-22.
Boland dismissed Justin Greaves for 11, caught by Beau Webster at second slip, and got Shamar Joseph LBW first ball on review as the Windies teetered to 8-26, still needing one more run to avoid the lowest score in Test history set by New Zealand against England at Auckland in 1955.
His hat-trick pearler left Warrican beaten all ends up as it jagged back off a good length to hit the top of off stump.
“I was just concentrating on keeping balls in good areas,” Boland said.
They managed to avoid equalling the worst score of all time when Konstas misfielded an edge to the the gully off Starc but he ripped through Jayden Seales’ defences to chalk up the seventh duck on the humiliating scorecard for the hosts.
Starc didn’t miss the opportunity to point at Seales, who gave him a send-off on day one, as he raced past him in jubilation.
Australia’s total marked their lowest against the West Indies since Courtney Walsh and Curtly Ambrose were wreaking havoc in 1995.
But any prospect of that costing the visitors a shot at a 3-0 series clean sweep were abruptly ended by Starc’s new-ball heroics.
with AAP
