Hobart: Mitchell Starc, now the highest wicket-taker at the ICC World Cup with 16 wickets, says he is all set to bowl at his best in the coming quarter-final at Adelaide. The Australian left-armer returned with figures of 4.4-1-14-4 as his team mauled Scotland by seven wickets in an inconsequential group match on Saturday

Answering to a query from Gulf News on how much he enjoys the Adelaide wicket, he candidly admitted that his first love is Sydney but he was looking forward to bowling in Adelaide.

“Not as much as I enjoy bowling in Sydney. Look, it’s a ground (Adelaide) where we’ve all played some cricket at and we all know quite well. Depending on whoever we play, which comes out of tomorrow’s game, we’ll be ready to go.”

Starc is happy that they have time to train in Adelaide too. “ We’ve got plenty of time to train, and I don’t think that wicket changes too much in terms of what we think we’re going to get. Look, we’ll prepare well as we have done for the whole World Cup and be ready to go no matter what we face.”

When asked about how it feels to be the top wicket-taker, he said: “The ball is coming out nicely, I can’t complain at all. It’s coming out consistently, but more importantly we’re winning games and that’s all that matters. As long as we’re winning games, confidence is going to be high, and especially going into the knockout stages, taking a bit of momentum. As Michael (Clarke) said, some guys got some time in the middle.I think we’re all bowling quite well, we’re training well, so yeah, personally it’s just nice to see the ball coming out consistently.”

Starc also revealed that working on different plans has helped him. “Whether it be in training or in the game, it’s nice see them coming off. Things we can work on, as always, things that we can improve on but I think today was just nice to see that we all did the basics very well as a fielding unit, as a bowling unit, and then some pretty much very selfless cricket there to really get us over the line had an impact.”

Starc is happy that he has done well in the group stages. “We’re done and dusted with the group stages. We’re looking forward to the knockouts. I’ve been working at my bowling quite hard with Craig McDermott (bowling coach) since the one-day series in Zimbabwe. Look forward to continue with my form through the back-end of the World Cup.”

When asked if Starc was one of the best bowlers they have faced, Scotland skipper Preston Mommsen said: “Left arm bowlers look to swing the ball. I think both of them (Starc and Pat Cummins) hitting good pace at the moment, both of them in good form. Probably not much to tell them apart. I’m sure it will be a very good World Cup for both of them.”