Starc razes South Australia with eight-for

Mitchell Starc marked England's Ashes arrival with a devastating, career-best 8 for 73 for New South Wales to dismantle South Australia in the day-night Sheffield Shield match at Adelaide Oval. National captain Steven Smith, however, made another low score before the Blues sealed a six-wicket victory.

In a match where ball dominated bat, Starc's dominance was aided by a pair of wickets for fellow Test bowler Nathan Lyon, as the Redbacks were unable to set NSW a truly challenging target on the third afternoon of the fixture.

Starc had never previously taken more than six wickets in an innings, but his fast yorkers were much too good for SA's lower order, including the Test wicket-keeping aspirant Alex Carey, who was pinned lbw. SA's captain Callum Ferguson provided most of the hosts' resistance, but he was fortunate to be dropped by Peter Nevill - another wicket-keeping candidate - off Pat Cummins.

Left needing only 57, the Blues made hard work of it, losing Nic Maddinson, Smith, David Warner and Kurtis Patterson before they were able to close the match out. Chadd Sayers, 12th man for the Adelaide Test a year ago, was another bowler to have an excellent match, claiming six wickets without having much in the way of scoreboard pressure to help him.