Australia found ‘new way to win’ against WI: Starc

NOTTINGHAM, United Kingdom: Australia fast bowler Mitchell Starc believes the hard-fought nature of their victory over the West Indies sets the champions up for the defence of their World Cup crown.

The five-time winners appeared to be heading for defeat when they were reduced to 79-5 at Trent Bridge on Thursday following a hostile spell of fast bowling by the West IndiesBut, with Nathan Coulter-Nile hitting a career-best 92 and Steve Smith making 73, Australia recovered to a competitive 288 all out.

Despite fifties from opener Shai Hope and West Indies captain Jason Holder, West Indies fell 15 runs short in their reply, with Starc taking five for 46.“We haven’t played awesome cricket in that game, we played well in patches but we can get better,” said Starc.

“It’s exciting to find new ways to win. Coults (Coulter-Nile) played very well to get us to a competitive total.”He added: “You always have to be confident in those situations, it was touch and go for a while. We always had the belief. There is lots of good bowling in our line-up and we were only a couple of wickets away.” Left-armer Starc, 29, removed the dangerous Chris Gayle before he could really get going and also took the crucial wickets of Andre Russell and Holder. Starc was the player of the tournament when Australia won the 2015 World Cup on home soil, taking 22 wickets.