Australian pacer Mitchell Starc on Thursday added a feather on his cap as he broke fast bowling legend Glenn McGrath’s 12-year-long ICC World Cup record for the most wickets taken in the single edition of the marquee event.
The 29-year-old achieved the feat during Australia’s semi-final clash of the 2019 edition of the World Cup against hosts England at the Edgbaston Cricket Ground in Birmingham.
Heading into the all-important last-four clash of the quadrennial event, Starc was just one wicket short of surpassing McGrath’s World Cup record of 26 wickets during Australia’s victorious campaign in the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies.
Left-arm pacer Starc achieved the feat when he trapped England opener Jonny Bairstow (34) leg before wicket on the second delivery of the 18th over during the Eoin Morgan-led side’s chase of 224 runs for a berth in the final. Starc now has 27 wickets in his tally from 10 innings he played during this year’s World Cup.
Overall, Starc is standing joint-fifth in the list of all-time leading wicket-takers in World Cups with 49 scalps from 18 innings he played across two editions of the tournament.
Australian legend McGrath is leading the list with a total of 71 scalps from 39 matches, followed by Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan with 68 wickets and Lasith Malinga (56) and Pakistan’s Wasim Akram (55).
Besides this, Starc also holds the record of the player with most five-wicket hauls in the ICC World Cup. The Australian bowler took his overall five-wicket haul tally to three after claiming a fifer each against West Indies and New Zealand during the group stage matches of this year’s edition of the tournament.
Source: Zee News