London: 

After being put to bat, Australia managed just 212 runs courtesy of Kagiso Rabada's five-wicket haul, with prolific batter Steve Smith and all-rounder Beau Webster scoring fifties for the defending champions.

Australian pace spearhead Mitchell Starc surpassed Indian ace speedster Mohammed Shami to become the bowler with the most wickets in the ICC tournament finals. He achieved a unique record on the opening day of the ongoing ICC World Test Championship (WTC) final clash between Australia and South Africa at iconic Lord's on Wednesday, June 11.

The 'first-over Starc' was at it once again, cleaning up Aiden Markram for a duck with a brutal inswinger. By the end of the day's play, he had 2/10 in seven overs. It was the 19th time that Starc picked up a wicket in the first over of Test innings.

Now, Starc has overtaken former India pacer Zaheer Khan, the Indian pace legend, to become joint-second-highest wicket-taker in ICC knockouts, with 22 scalps at an average of 24.31, and best figures of 3/34. Starc needs just two more wickets to overtake Sri Lanka's veteran spinner Muttiah Muralitharan in the list, who leads with 23 scalps at an average of 23.39, with best figures of 4/31.

Now in five ICC finals, Starc has taken 11 wickets at an average of 26.63, economy rate of 5.17 and best figures of 3/55 against India in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 final at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. Shami, in four ICC finals, has taken 10 wickets at an average of 38.90, an economy rate of 3.95 and best bowling figures of 4/76 in the WTC final 2021 against New Zealand.

Coming to the match, after Australia was put to bat first by SA, they sunk to 67/4 at the end of the first session. A 79-run stand between Steve Smith (66 in 112 balls) and Beau Webster (72 in 92 balls) and Webster's 46-run stand with Alex Carey (23 in 31 balls) pushed Australia near the 200-run mark as they lost the last five wickets inside 20 runs.

SA had an even nightmarish start, losing their four wickets for 43 runs at the end of day's play, with none of their batters touching the 20-run mark yet. Starc got two wickets, while skipper Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood got one wicket each. SA trails by 169 runs.

Read More :

Gambhir Welcomes Karun Nair Along With New Captain, New Coach