Yorkshire face Starc challenge in group opener

Starc said his time at Headingley Carnegie earlier this summer had helped to take his game to a new level and taught him to stand on his own two feet away from the auspices of Cricket Australia.

The 22-year-old left-armer, part of the Sydney Sixers’ side that Yorkshire will face in their opening group game in Cape Town (12.30pm start UK time), believes he benefited from being thrown in at the deep end and the challenges he encountered on-and-off the field.

Starc’s Yorkshire career began disastrously when he was deported due to problems with his visa but the overall experience toughened him up and lifted him out of his comfort zone.

“I think my time in England, with Yorkshire, really helped me to learn a lot more about things and a lot more about my game,” said Starc, who took 3-31 to help Sydney to a 14-run win over Chennai Super Kings in their opening group match in Johannesburg on Sunday. I was by myself away from home rather than being around the Australian or New South Wales Group, and I also had to work out how to develop my bowling in different conditions. I think that being left on my own a little bit, and learning about my game as opposed to being around the Australian team day-in, day-out was really beneficial.

“The Australian set-up is great, but sometimes you need time away to learn things for yourself, and I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Yorkshire and the help I got from the coaching staff.”

Starc, who said Sydney would not be underestimating Yorkshire despite Andrew Gale’s men being rank outsiders in the 10-team tournament, played a key role in helping Yorkshire to the Champions League in the first place.

He was leading wicket-taker in this year’s Twenty20 Cup with 21 at 10.38 and his efforts helped Yorkshire get to the final, which, in turn, guaranteed their passage to the global event.

Starc is playing for Sydney in the Champions League because they are his home franchise and because Yorkshire would have had to pay a release fee of circa £90,000 for his services.

Martyn Moxon, the county’s director of cricket, has already stated that was never an option and he said his players would have to be at their best to cope with Starc.

“It will be good to catch up with him because he was a very popular member of our team who did brilliantly for us,” said Moxon.

“It will be a great experience for our lads to play against him.

“He’s a quality bowler, he’s got great pace and he bowls brilliantly at the death.

“His bowling was a massive part of our success last season and we’ll have to be at our best to combat him.”

Despite bookmakers’ predictions of a taxing tournament, Yorkshire have already surpassed many people’s expectations by qualifying for the Champions League main phase.

Victories over Sri Lankan Premier League champions Uva Next and West Indian champions Trinidad & Tobago saw Yorkshire top their qualifying pool and join the main competition which features four Indian Premier League, two Australian and two South African franchises, along with another qualifier in Auckland Aces.

Commenting on Yorkshire’s progress so far, Moxon said: “I think we have already won a trophy in some senses.

“Our aim was to get through to the group stage and, for me, that’s a massive success in itself; the rest of it is just the icing on the cake really.

“When you look at the teams and some of the names that we’ll be playing against during the next few days, it’s quite staggering.

“We’ve got some young players who are going to be playing against Tendulkar and Dhoni and the like, and that can only be good for their experience.”

Yorkshire are likely to face a significant challenge today, with Sydney having the hue of potential champions.

As well as Starc, they have fellow Australia pace bowler Pat Cummins and are packed with game-changing players throughout their line-up.

Sydney performed superbly against Chennai, scoring an imposing 185-5 after being sent into bat.

Shane Watson got them off to a flying start with 46 from 30 deliveries before late impetus was provided by Moises Henriques (49 not out from 23 balls) and Steven Smith (26 from 17), the pair ending the innings with a riotous stand of 75 in 6.3 overs.

Starc immediately rocked Chennai on their heels in reply by taking the wicket of opener Murali Vijay before adding the scalps of Ravichandran Ashwin and Yo Mahesh.

Henriques capped a man-of-the-match display with figures of 3-23 as only Suresh Raina (57) and Faf du Plessis (43) threatened to pull off an unlikely chase.