The Australia innings has come to an end at 207 when the Proteas bowlers did an exemplary performance at Lord’s. The first Australian innings was wrapped up at just 212, but their bowlers, especially the pacers, gave in all their potential and restricted the South African innings to just 138 runs. In the second Innings, the South Africans once again tore apart the top order and the middle order of the Kangaroos with back-to-back clinching of wickets. But to everyone’s surprise, Mitchell Starc turned out to be the innings builder for them. He smashed a stunning half century and led to score to a reasonable total of 207, which extended Australia’s lead to 281 runs. South Africa now has a target of 282 to beat the reigning world champions.
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Craziest stat of all time 😭
— M. (@IxonicKohli) June 13, 2025
Wickets in ICC finals-
– Mitchell Starc – 11 in 6 inns
– Jasprit Bumrah – 4 in 5 inns
Runs in ICC finals-
– Mitchell Starc – 106 in 4 inns
– Sachin Tendulkar – 98 in 4 inns pic.twitter.com/Ad4SO6ILLE
Mitchell’s Magic
Let us tell everyone that this was not the first time that Starc took the matter into his own hands and established a potential innings coming at number 9. He has achieved this feat 7 times before as well in Test cricket. Behind him is England’s Stuart Broad, who is also working in a consultancy role with South Africa. Broad has managed to achieve this 6 times. Only two batters have five 50-plus scores from No.9 or lower in Tests in a single country – Stuart Broad and Mitchell Starc, both in England.
| Rank | Player | 50+ Scores from No.9 or Below |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mitchell Starc | 8 |
| 2 | Stuart Broad | 6 |
| 2 | Daniel Vettori | 6 |
| 4 | Michael Holding | 5 |
| 4 | Kiran More | 5 |
| 4 | Tim Southee | 5 |
| 4 | Graeme Swann | 5 |
Pacers Dominating In Lord’s
It is a well-known fact that the SENA countries are much more favourable for fast bowling rather than spinners, unlike in the subcontinent, where spinners get little edge over pacers. This can be stated with the fact that in all 30 wickets (including 2 Australian innings and 1 South African innings), only 1 wicket has been claimed by a spinner, South Africa’s Keshav Maharaj. All the remaining 29 wickets have been bagged by the speedsters from both sides, with Australia’s skipper Pat Cummins claiming the highest, 6 wickets in an innings.
