BRISBANE, Australia: Zac Crawley survived Mitchell Starc’s two-wicket opening burst to post an unbeaten half-century and combined with Joe Root to guide England to 98-2 at the first interval in the second Ashes cricket test against Australia.
Starc struck twice in four deliveries to have England reeling at 5-2 in the third over of the day-night test Thursday in a continuation of his dominance over the batters from Australia’s series-opening eight-wicket win in Perth.
Crawley, who was dismissed without scoring in both innings in the first test, played and missed twice at the Gabba before getting off the mark with a boundary and then a single off Starc.
Ben Duckett was out for a first-ball duck, well caught at ankle height by Marnus Labuschagne at slip, on the sixth delivery of the match. It was the 26th time Starc has taken a wicket in the first over of a test match innings.
Ollie Pope faced two balls from Starc before dragging the third onto his own stumps to have England reeling in the third over.
With those dismissals, Starc moved equal with Pakistan great Wasim Akram on 414 career wickets as the most successful left-arm pace bowlers in test history.
Root had a reprieve on two when he edged Starc and Steve Smith missed a difficult chance lunging across from second slip and deflecting the ball to the boundary.
Crawley gave Starc a half-chance when he drove uppishly past the paceman for a boundary, and he may also have had a let off when the Australians decided not to review when Michael Neser appealed for a caught behind.