Australia pacer Scott Boland surprised himself with a sensational debut at his home ground. The Victorian pacer returned with figures of 4-1-7-6 as Australia bowled England out for 68 in the second innings to retain the Ashes with two matches to go.
The hosts took another 80 minutes on the third morning to take the unassailable lead of 3-0. Notable that it’s the lowest total for England in the last hundred years down under. The debutant Scott Boland returned with match figures of 7/55 as he received the Johnny Mullagh medal as a player of the match in front of his home crowd.
“I thought we had a pretty good chance of winning but I had no idea we would do it before lunch,” Boland said in the post-match presentation.
Boland just took 19 deliveries to complete his fifer which is jointly the quickest for any bowler in Test Cricket. Australia’s Ernie Toshack (in 1947) and England’s Stuart Broad (in 2015) also achieved this feat in just 19 deliveries.
“That’s my best ever figures, nothing happened that quickly. Obviously, I thought (debuting) was going to be really tough, a big step up from anything else I’d played before. I was hoping to make a bit of an impact.” he added.
The Victorian pacer also felt humbled by the overwhelming support from the home crowd.
“I’d like to thank the crowd so much for the support over the last three days, I really appreciate it,” said Boland.
Melbourne Cricket Ground has always been a happy hunting ground for Scott Boland as he picked 49 wickets at an average of 13.43 in first-class cricket at this ground. Earlier in this season, he picked an 8-wicket haul against New South Wales in a Sheffield Shield match.
Australian skipper Pat Cummins is also quite impressed with the debutant’s efforts.
“So happy for Scottie in front of his home crowd today,” Cummins said.
“Just an amazing feeling. Just an awesome few weeks, so proud of the group here and just everything’s clicked,” he added further.
The 4th Test of this Ashes series will begin on January 5 as Australia would be eying for another whitewash. Notable that England hadn’t won a Test in Australia since January 2019.