Mitchell Starc bagged Zak Crawley for the England opener’s first pair in Test cricket with a spectacular caught-and-bowled – but faced a nervous wait over fears he had recreated an infamous non-dismissal in the 2023 Lord’s Ashes Test.
Starc gets Crawley, again
Crawley lasted six balls in the first innings before nicking Starc to slip for a duck. That number came down by one in the third innings, even with England having claimed a lead of 40, and this time Starc did all the work himself. As Crawley popped the ball back down the pitch, Starc flew to his left, grabbing a full-stretch catch in his follow-through.
Crawley was made to wait before departing, with the TV umpire checking whether Starc had grounded the ball before completing the catch. It was a close-run thing as he pressed his hand into the turf, but crucially not the ball, and Crawley was made to depart.
There were echoes of a controversial moment in the 2023 Lord’s Ashes Test – though not the one everyone remembers, with Alex Carey’s stumping of Jonny Bairstow coming a day later. On the fourth evening, he thought he had caught Ben Duckett in the deep, only to press the ball into the turf as he slid, with the catch chalked off. Starc looked non-plussed, believing he had held the ball for enough time for the catch to be clean, and Glenn McGrath, on BBC commentary, was incensed.
“I’m sorry, that is the biggest load of rubbish I have ever seen,” he said. “He has got that ball under control. That ball is under control. I’m sorry, I’ve seen everything this game has to offer. If that is not out, then every other catch that’s ever been taken should be not out. That is a disgrace. I’ve seen everything now. I cannot believe that. If that ball is not under control, that is ridiculous. He’s got that well under control in two hands. I have seen everything now.
“If that’s England taking that catch, that’s out. That’s ridiculous. I cannot believe that. That is a regulation catch. If I’m bowling, I’m not happy. The ground had no assistance in him catching that ball. He’s having a go at Duckett. I’d be having a go at everyone if I was Mitchell Starc. That’s basically saying Mitchell Starc is cheating. And he did not cheat, he caught that comfortably. If you catch it in your hand, you have control.”
Law 33.3 states that “The act of making a catch shall start from the time when the ball first comes into contact with a fielder’s person and shall end when a fielder obtains complete control over both the ball and his/her own movement,” and in 2023, Starc was deemed not to be in control of his own movement when he pressed the ball into the ground.
There were no such worries in 2025, but perhaps he will have had his heart in his mouth nonetheless. The dismissal left England 0-1 for the second time in the game, with Australia also losing their first wicket without scoring. This marked the first instance in Test history of all three first innings seeing a wicket fall before the first run was scored. Matters improved for England thereafter, with Ollie Pope and Duckett putting on 59 to take the lead to 99 at lunch.
Watch: Mitchell Starc's incredible return catch
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