IND vs AUS: Mitchell Starc emulated former WI pacer Pedro Collins with his third first-ball wicket in a Test match on Friday. (AP/Reuters)
When Mitchell Starc’s snaky inswinger zoomed in a little too fast for Yashasvi Jaiswal off the first ball of the Pink-Ball Test in Adelaide, the Aussie left-armer joined West Indies’ Pedro Collins in an elite list of Test quicks.
Starc’s first-ball strike of the Test was the third time he had removed a batter with the opening delivery of a Test match. While the Aussie comms jumped the gun in proclaiming Starc as the first to achieve the feat thrice, a quick retraction acknowledged the forgotten feat of the Barbadian.
A left-armer in the Starc ilk, Collins had an all too brief Test career – 32 appearances, 106 wickets – but not without a share of magic, including making Sachin Tendulkar his ‘bunny’.
Super Starc’s first-ballers! 🍑🍑
Which delivery was better? #AUSvIND pic.twitter.com/aV1XtC4esb
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) December 6, 2024
Three in three
Collins’ return to the spotlight on Friday though was for his rare achievement of becoming the first ball to have bagged wickets on the first ball of a Test thrice, and playing his part in ending former Bangladeshi opener Hannan Sarkar’s international career.
Collins ran an untroubled streak across two continents as he dislodged the same batter in three games between 2002 and 2004. Sarkar was first trapped leg-before in Dhaka in late 2002 before being trapped twice in Gros Islet and Kingston in successive games in 2004. A technically sturdy Sarkar would play only one more game for Bangladesh before being axed from the side. Collins would add a few more caps to his name before making his final appearance in 2006, with his half-brother Fidel Edwards moving ahead to have a more successful Test career for the Windies.
Tendulkar ‘bunny’
Collins shot to worldwide fame when he troubled Sachin Tendulkar during India’s 2002 tour to the Caribbean, dismissing him thrice in two successive Tests. Collins moped up the India batting legend for a golden and silver duck. He joined legendary figures in Glenn McGrath, Courtney Walsh and Makhaya Ntini as the only bowlers to have dislodged Tendulkar on nought on multiple occasions.
“I remember them like yesterday, I will never forget those three balls. Nobody thinks and talks about the other wickets, they only talk about those wickets – getting Sachin out. Till date, when people see me they say this man destroyed Sachin. He is the one who got Sachin out. Everywhere I go, people still remember those wickets. Sachin and I have a good relationship,” Collins would letter tell in an interview with Firstpost.
But his fledgling career did have a few more gems, like the one Starc emulated with his stunning first-ball jolt to the Indians in Adelaide.
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