Champion quick makes the best of a bad ball

As the delirious Perth Stadium crowd screamed Travis Head's name, it was Mitch Starc who collected his fifth Test player-of-the-match award.

As fans at home devoured replay after replay of Head's instant classic, Starc wedged the chunky, blue felt NMRA Insurance medal box into his pocket.

As broadcasters and pundits began ranking Head's knock among the greatest ever, Starc slipped into the Aussie changerooms with a broad smile on his face.

It was Head who delivered the crushing blows for Australia but it was Starc who made it possible.

After collecting a career-best 7-58 on day one, Starc admitted fault by selecting a bad ball from the box of Kookaburras before play on Friday.

The champion quick said his chosen ball quickly lost its shape and before long it resembled a "hockey puck", with flat spots all over the leather missile.

"With that ball yesterday, it's arguably the worst ball I've ever bowled with," Nathan Lyon agreed.

"It did not sit on its axis at all.

"But for him (Starc) to take seven wickets there, back it up today and take three, 10 for the game … Say no more."

The thought of Starc taking seven wickets on a day with little-to-no swing would have been inconceivable only a few years ago.

But the 35-year-old's recent mastery of the "wobble seam" delivery, that relies more on purchase off the pitch than movement through the air, has taken his game to a new level.

Starc had 3-10 in the first hour on the opening day, picking up the wickets of Zak Crawley and Joe Root, both for ducks, with the wobble seam.

His wickets of England captain Ben Stokes, bowled through the gate and caught at second slip, came in the same style.  

"I've said it before, but my best mates are two of the best exponents of it in the world," Starc said of the delivery, also referred to as a quarter-seam ball because of the angle the ball is held in the hand.

"So to learn off Josh (Hazlewood) and Pat (Cummins) … but if I'd listened to those two a bit earlier, I might have had it in the repertoire a little bit earlier."

But perhaps the most impressive aspect of Starc's third 10-wicket haul was his wicket of Crawley in England's second innings.

Starc dismissed the touring opener in the first over of both innings, the 25th time Starc has managed that feat, and the second of this match was nothing short of spectacular.

Crawley pushed a full ball down the ground to the left of the following-through Starc.

In an amazing showing of athleticism and dexterity, the left-arm quick was able to change direction in mere milliseconds, stick out his big left hand and pluck an extraordinary catch.

"We kind of expect that from him now, and it sounds really harsh, but he's an X-factor," Lyon said.

"He wins games, and that's why we love playing cricket with him.

"It's pretty remarkable and I'm not surprised."

While Lyon joked that it reminded him of his own return catch off Moeen Ali in the 2017-18 Ashes, for Starc there were shades of the controversy at Lord's in 2023, where his outfield catch off Ben Duckett was overturned.

On that occasion, Starc planted the ball into the ground as he slid on his knees to regain his balance, but in Perth he had the presence of mind to cock his wrist enough to prevent the ball kissing the pitch.

The standing umpires asked to have the catch checked and third umpire S Saikat of Bangladesh deliberated over it for two minutes and 15 seconds before giving it the all-clear.

"I was amazed they actually had a look at it," Starc said.

"It felt like it was right in the middle of hands and my fingers were under it, which it was.

"But yeah with the other one (Duckett), I put the ball on the ground.

"Luckily, I'm quite mobile … You don't train for them. It stuck right in the middle, so I got lucky."

Instead of the scheduled nine-day break between the first and second Tests, Perth's two-day finish means the sides now have 12 days to prepare for Brisbane, which will host its fourth pink-ball Test from December 4.

The quicks from both nations won't mind the extra rest, although with only 140 overs bowled for the match, it was a smaller-than-usual workload.

Starc's 24.5 overs was the most by any bowler in the match, a number he's exceeded in a single innings on 29 times in his Test career.

"There's obviously a little bit of a break now that's a little bit longer now with the extra three days," Starc said.

"I think we'll just enjoy this week.

"It's been a wild two days. It's been a fantastic start to the series.

"It's been helter-skelter and a lot's been jammed into two days.

"We'll enjoy this one, keep it under wraps, but enjoy joy being one-nil up.

"Once we get into Brisbane we'll get our prep, the pink ball, as (Steve) Smithy says, it's a lottery.

"I'm sure they'll regroup and re-attack. We might have Patty (Cummins) back in the squad."

The Australian captain Cummins said he was "half a chance for the next game" when asked about his prospects on Fox Cricket during day two.

He bowled several spells at close to full pace in the Perth Stadium nets in the lead in to the first Test.

2025-26 NRMA Insurance Men's Ashes

First Test: Australia win by eight wickets

Second Test: December 4-8, The Gabba, Brisbane (D/N), 3pm AEDT

Third Test: December 17-21: Adelaide Oval, 10:30am AEDT

Fourth Test: December 26-30: MCG, Melbourne, 10:30am AEDT

Fifth Test: January 4-8: SCG, Sydney, 10:30am AEDT

Australia squad (first Test only): Steve Smith (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Brendan Doggett, Cameron Green, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, Mitchell Starc, Jake Weatherald, Beau Webster

England squad: Ben Stokes (c), Harry Brook (vc), Jofra Archer, Gus Atkinson, Shoaib Bashir, Jacob Bethell, Brydon Carse, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Will Jacks, Ollie Pope, Matthew Potts, Joe Root, Jamie Smith (wk), Josh Tongue, Mark Wood