AUS vs SL: Mitchell Starc's off-cutter goes horribly wrong, ball lands far away from the pitch

Australia defeated Sri Lanka comfortably in the third of the five-match T20I series on Tuesday (February 15). They chased down a modest target of 122 runs without breaking a sweat with six wickets and more than three overs in hand. It was a pretty decent day for the bowlers of the home team as four out of six of them were amongst wickets.

Mitchell Starc went wicketless in his four overs but he did well to concede only 30 runs in his spell. However, he delivered probably the worst ball of his career during Sri Lanka’s batting innings. The incident happened in the 18th over of the innings when Starc was bowling the last over of his spell.

Dasun Shanaka was the batter on strike who was looking to churn out some quick runs. Starc steamed in to deliver the fifth ball of the over and tried to roll his fingers over the ball. However, his attempt to bowl an off-cutter went horribly wrong as the ball slipped out of Starc’s hands only to even go out of wicketkeeper Matthew Wade’s reach.

The ball went very high and wide of Wade who tried his best to stop but couldn’t. Australia conceded four byes and it was also called no-ball. It didn’t cost the hosts much with Sri Lanka already struggling in their innings and everyone saw the lighter side of the incident. Even the commentator were laughing while Wade also had a smile on his fans.

Here’s the video:

"I don't think I've ever seen a ball go that wide!"

Matthew Wade had no chance with that one! #AUSvSL pic.twitter.com/MjC8sCvYtk

— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) February 15, 2022

Australia take unassailable 3-0 lead in the series

As far as the series is concerned, Australia have now won the first three matches to take an unassailable lead. They won the first T20I comfortably as well but Sri Lanka fought back superbly to tie the second game. However, the visitors lost in the super over thanks to some excellent bowling from Josh Hazlewood. They would’ve hoped for a better show in the third T20I but it didn’t happen and have now lost the series with two matches to go.