Mitchell Starc takes Tom Latham's wicket with a fun sequence, a breakdown
What Happened
Australia's left-arm fast bowler Mitchell Starc takes on New Zealand's opening batsman Tom Latham in the fourth over of their Test match. Starc has two main deliveries in his arsenal - the outswinger and the wobble-seam ball. Starc first bowls a classic outswinger, which Latham blocks defensively. On the next delivery, Latham flicks the ball off his pads for a boundary, getting off the mark. Starc then tries to tempt Latham into playing an expansive shot on the leg side, but Latham wisely leaves that delivery alone. Recognizing that Latham is not going to chase the wide deliveries, Starc then decides to go with his other weapon - the wobble-seam ball. He delivers one straight at the stumps, disguising it as an outswinger. Latham, expecting the ball to swing away, is late in getting his bat down and ends up chopping the ball onto his stumps, losing his wicket. The commentator notes that Starc's skillful sequencing of the two deliveries - the outswinger followed by the straight wobble-seam ball - was the key to dismissing the experienced Latham. The batsman was unsure of which way the ball would move and was caught off guard by the sudden change of pace and trajectory. The dismissal comes with the match evenly poised, with New Zealand 11/1 chasing Australia's first-innings total. Starc's incisive spell has given his team the early breakthrough they were seeking, and the momentum has shifted in their favor. The crowd erupts in applause, acknowledging the fast bowler's cunning and execution. As Latham trudges off the field, Starc celebrates with his teammates, knowing that his combination of swing and seam has once again proved too much for the opposition. The match is now finely poised, and both teams will be looking to gain the upper hand as the Test progresses.
Full Transcript
Click timestamps to jump to that momentMitchell Stark, the tall lefty for Australia, has got two different deliveries he bowls.
This breakdown is brought to you by DraftKings. This is the first one and his most popular one.
It is out swinger to the lefty batsman, in swinger to a righty batsman, and it's
going to slide and swing from left to right with a nice tight spin using the new ball.
The next one's the wobble seam, and that's going to be more true, and then it bounces,
and then it might spray everywhere, but for the most part, it's going to go straight,
and that's a wobble seam spin. These are the two grips, and you can see he's got his
hand behind the ball, just the same on both. It's just the way the seam in his hand and
the grip on his fingers, different. The ball's a little twisted, and he just yanks the wobble
seam down where he kind of rolls the spin off of his fingers, and you can see two different
flights of the ball. When you put them together, they get you a little cross action, which
can confuse the batter. They're going to go like two whirls.
Two whirls hanging out. So here he is in the fourth over facing Latham, and he's going to
open him up, just kind of throws the out swinger right at the stumps. Let's see, and Latham
protects it, just blocks it, no runs, and then again, and this time, he just flicks it off his
leg to the boundary for four where this couple greet each other hello, haven't seen each other
in a while. He feels good. That's his first boundary of the test match. He's off. He's
feeling good, and now Stark's going to say, okay, you want to flick him?
Leg side. Here's one. Flick this, and he puts it way behind his leg, and Latham's like, no,
I'm not going to play that. You're not going to induce a bad shot out of me. I'm not going to go
extend myself. Good try, Mitch, but I'm not doing it. Stark says, you're not going to play it.
That's fine. I'll go with the wobble seam right at the stumps. You're going to think it's an
out swinger. It's not. See you later. Plan worked to perfection. I don't know if it's a plan or he's
just reacting to what Latham's doing and what's happening, but the sequencing there is perfect
because he thinks this is going to swing away, and then at the last second realizes, oh, wait,
that's the straight one. I got to protect the stumps and is late to protect the stumps,
and then chops it on. You can see the wobble seam there. No real tight spin. He's like, oh,
I got to protect. Oh, I didn't protect. Did the opposite. Chopped it right on. I don't know if
that would have hit if he did leave it. It might have went high. Yeah, definitely going high.
Yeah, it's definitely going high, but he got nervous because it wasn't the ball he was
expecting it to be, so he thought, oh, shit, I got to do something different, and then he's gone.
Thank you to DraftKings for sponsoring this breakdown. Thank you to Mitchell Stark for
throwing those beautiful balls. Thank you to Tim Latham for doing what he did, and thank you to you
guys for watching, and again, thank you to DraftKings for sponsoring the video. Appreciate them as always.