without conceding any runs, the first triple-wicket maiden ever bowled in the Champions Trophy. Because their first two matches had no result, Australia needed to win their final match against England to progress to the knockout stage, but they lost the match and were eliminated from the tournament. After the tournament, follow-up scans were taken of Starc's foot and showed that his stress fracture had not fully recovered, so he was ruled out of Australia's tour of Bangladesh in August and September. Starc returned from this injury to play in the first two rounds of the 2017–18 Sheffield Shield season for New South Wales as a way to prepare for the 2017–18 Ashes series. This turned out to be an incredibly successful two matches for him, as he took career-best figures of 8/73 against South Australia, then became the first bowler to take a hat-trick in each innings of a Sheffield Shield match while playing against Western Australia. This was both the first time the feat had ever been in achieved in Australia, and the first time it had been achieved anywhere in the world since 1978. He was named player of the match for both performances. Starc played in the first three matches of the Ashes, with Australia winning all three and regaining the Ashes with two matches remaining, but he suffered a bruised heel in the third match. Leading up to the Boxing Day Test match, he spent days on crutches to take weight off of the injured foot, but he decided to withdraw from the match because of the chance of further aggravating the injury. Starc was considered fit enough to play in the final match and the following ODI series, but his bowling was much slower than usual and he didn't pose as much of a threat to England's batsmen. Starc spent time recovering from his injury before traveling for Australia's 2018 away tour of South Africa, where he had not previously played red-ball cricket. In the first Test match of the series, he took five wickets in the first innings and 4 in the second to achieve match bowling figures of 9 for 109, for which he won the Man of the Match award. He was able to get reverse swing with the ball, owing to the way the abrasive pitch at Kingsmead Cricket Ground roughed up the ball. During the match he engaged in