Mitchell Starc didn't have the usual wicket-filled series against the West Indies despite the wickets being seamer-friendly throughout the three Tests but the tall veteran roared and rioted on the final day of the assignment, in his 100th appearance in whites for Australia and reminded the hosts and the whole world that he is still firing on all cylinders. After Australia were snuffed out for a paltry 121 in their second innings, the West Indies needed one final push to chip away with 204 runs in the fourth innings, but they surrendered and had no weapons.
Starc got just one wicket in the first innings in his 100th Test and was also dismissed for a duck, but he managed to turn it around in the second innings. Starc, who has 20 wickets to his name in the first over of an innings in Tests, added three more to his name, with no one being anywhere near him. The first ball of the innings, Starc got it to shape away from the left-hander and John Campbell edged it straight to the keeper, Josh Inglis.
The debutant Kevlon Anderson played three balls out before bizarrely planting his front foot forward in the line of the stumps, offering no shot, and worse, also reviewed it after the on-field LBW call of 'out'. The incoming batter, Brandon King at four, went for a drive on a fuller delivery, which shaped back in, took the inside edge onto the stumps as the West Indies were in tatters at 0/3 in the first over.
Starc became only the second bowler in history, after Irfan Pathan, to take three wickets in the first over of an innings in Tests. The left-armer went on to complete his 400 wickets, a couple of overs later and managed to register the quickest five-wicket haul in an innings in just 15 balls, four balls fewer than the previous fastest in a spell.
Scott Boland took a hat-trick and Starc finished it off with a revenge send-off against Jayden Seales as Australia made light work of the Windies batting line-up and clinched the series 3-0.
