'I Bowled Five Bad Balls And...': Mitchell Starc Relives The World Cup Over When Rohit Sharma Went on a Rampage

Rohit Sharma was at his brutal best during India vs Australia at the 2024 T20 World Cup as be blasted 92 off 41 deliveries as his team went on to win the contest by 24 runs. Rohit took a shine to Australia left-arm pacer Mitchell Starc as he creamed him for 28 runs in a single over.

It was the third over of Indian innings and Rohit seemed to have made up his mind to go berserk and Starc had to bear the full brunt of it.

Also Read: ‘If You Get Him Out in India, Whole Atmosphere Changes’

Starc went full with his first two deliveries and the India captain launched him, twice in a row, over extra cover for consecutive sixes. And when the Australian went a little short, it was belted over mid-on for a four.

Starc’s nightmare continued as he missed his length again and Rohit hurled it over midwicket region for the third six of the over. A dot ball gave the 34-year-old some relief but he fired the next way outside off which was given wide.

Rohit wasn’t done though. He kept on attacking Starc and off the final delivery, got a top-edge away for six over third man region. 29 runs came in the over – 28 from the bat of the Indian opener.

Starc has now opened up on his forgettable over.

“I’ve played a lot against him (Rohit),” Starc said in LiSTNR Sport podcast. “He had a good tournament, especially in our game. I think he targeted that wind in St. Lucia as well. If you look at the runs from each end, one end went for a lot more than the other. I bowled from that end. I bowled five bad balls and he hit them all for six.”

Later on, Starc would dismiss Rohit but the damage was already done as Rohit’s stunning assault set the base for India’s 205/5 in 20 overs which proved enough.

“We thought it (total) was a little bit over par, but it was the best wicket in the World Cup which we played on in terms of runs scored. It wasn’t probably the quickest wicket in the West Indies but definitely the best wicket which we played on. Certainly chaseable. We were on target for a while but a couple of hiccups and some good bowling from them set us back,” Starc said.