Late night video show steeled Starc for six-wicket haul

Mitchell Starc has revealed how a late pre-Test video session with coaches and his wife Alyssa Healy gave him the confidence to run through South Africa in Cape Town.

Starc was the hero for Australia on Tuesday, claiming 6-72 to help bowl the Proteas out for 329 on what had threatened to be a disastrous day for Australia.

The 36-year-old took a stunning 6-10 from 4.3 overs late in the innings, including four wickets with his final six deliveries as he got the second new ball swinging.

Starc had not been able to get as much purchase as he would like on this tour, particularly when the ball was expected to move under heavy cloud cover last week.

That prompted a Monday night video session with head coach Andrew McDonald, bowling coach James Franklin and former Australia captain Healy.

Together they viewed footage of him bowling in the first Test in Durban overlaid with last year’s Ashes, where he took 31 wickets at an average of 19.93.

“There’s been a lot of things that haven’t felt right through the series,” said Starc.

“A lot of us have been around long enough to try and problem-solve while we’re going.

“I was hoping to get a few right with that second new (ball). It would have been nice to do it with the (first) new ball in the first hour.

“But I think that’s a feature of our group. We can problem-solve before the end of the day’s play too.”

And as for what Starc and co spotted that had changed about his action?

Nothing.

“There wasn’t really (anything) there. It was just my feeling,” he said.

“I was probably looking too far into it, searching for a feeling that I probably didn’t need to.

“So it was ‘if I just switch my brain off I will go okay’.”

Starc’s first two wickets came as Australia went to the short-ball approach, getting David Bedingham (50) and Wiaan Mulder (0) trying to hook in the space of two balls.

He then had Ryan Rickelton (42), Marco Jansen (52), Gerald Coetzee (0) and Kagiso Rabada (0) in the space of six balls, going full to have them each bowled or lbw.

His wickets came after former selector Mark Waugh claimed on Foxtel that the left-armer should have been the one to make way for Nathan Lyon instead of Scott Boland.

Boland took his third five-wicket haul in Gqeberha last week, but Starc has consistently been Australia’s best bowler in recent years.

“With the tightness of the group you’re disappointed for your mate,” Starc said of Boland.

“He’s clearly got an unbelievable record and when he does play, he’s always on the money.

“You just get around to Scotty and when he gets another chance, which he will, I’m sure he’ll be right to go.”