Eight five-fors and counting: Starc's record setting ODI pace

Starc took the eighth five-wicket haul of his ODI career in Tuesday’s match against the West Indies, collecting figures of 5/48.

The day’s work took Starc past Australian compatriot Glenn McGrath’s seven five-wicket hauls. He is now joint fifth for most ODI five-fors with Sri Lankan great Lasith Malinga.

He is only one five-wicket haul behind third-placed Brett Lee and Shahid Afridi, two behind Sri Lankan icon Muttiah Muralitharan and five behind Pakistan great Waqar Younis.

The Australian's eight five-wicket hauls have come at a record pace, with the left-arm seamer taking just 97 ODIs to get there.

Younis was the previous quickest to eight five-wicket hauls, reaching the mark in his 137th ODI and 135th innings. Rounding out the three fastest to the mark is Lee, who took his eighth five-for in his 165th ODI and 162nd innings.

Malinga took his eighth five-for in his 208th ODI (202nd innings), Muralitharan in his 232nd (226) and Afridi in his 334th (309th).

Starc picked up three wickets in his first three overs on Tuesday as he and new ball partner Josh Hazlewood combined for six wickets inside the Powerplay.

With Australia debuting three players and Alex Carey captaining the team for the first time, the pace spearhead said it was important for him and Hazlewood to step up.

“It was a special day, we had three debutants and a bloke captaining his first time for Australia, so a pretty special day for our group,” he said at the post-match presentation.

“I thought we did a fantastic job with the job with the bat to get to 250 with a couple of really good partnerships there so it was important for two older blokes with the ball to start us off really well and I thought we were fantastic in the Powerplay.”

The Bridgetown effort was Starc’s first five-wicket haul of Australia’s ICC Cricket World Cup Super League campaign. He will now be hoping to dominate the competition in the same way he has his two Cricket World Cup tournaments so far.

Three of Starc’s five-wicket hauls have come in World Cup events giving him the record for the most in tournament history.

Those three five-fors have come across just two tournaments, with Starc already the World Cup’s fifth-greatest wicket-taker with 49 at 14.81.

At the last tournament, he took a record-breaking 27 at 18.59, eclipsing McGrath’s record haul of 26 at 13.73 in 2007.

Starc will next be in action on Thursday when the two teams meet in the second ODI.