With what is happening in the Perth Test, some may have even bet on seeing something like this in the fourth innings of the match!

The third innings of the first Ashes Test is underway on the second day. England has come out to bat in their second innings. There, their opener Jack Crawley returned with the fifth ball of the innings. England still could not score a run on the scoreboard. The scene is not unfamiliar to the spectators who watched the Perth Test. The same thing happened in the previous two innings of the match.

England, batting in the first innings, lost opener Jack Crawley before the opening pair could score a run. Then Australia, batting in their first innings, lost Jack Weatherald before the opening pair could score a run.

In other words, the opening pair could not score a run in the first three innings of the Perth Test. This is the first time in the 148-year history of Test cricket that such an incident has happened.

Mitchell Starc’s contribution was more in that. Yesterday, on the first day of the Test, he removed opener Crawley with the fifth ball of England’s first innings. He was caught at slips for zero runs after playing 6 balls. Then, Australia opener Weatherald was caught lbw by England pacer Jofra Archer with the second ball of the innings. Today, Starc again took a great catch on the way to dismiss Crawley with the fifth ball of the innings.

Crawley played a little ‘push’ and the ball went up. Starc dived to his left in the follow-through of his bowling and took the catch with one hand, meaning that Crawley got a ‘pair’ after playing 11 balls in England’s two innings. Crawley became the first England opener to get a pair in a boys’ Test after Michael Atherton in Johannesburg in 1999.

And Starc? This left-handed pacer took 25 wickets in the first over of the Test innings.