There is no shortage of action whenever Australian batter Marnus Labuschagne is on the field. Omnipresent on a cricket ground especially in the capacity of a fielder, the 29-year old player had all but dismissed Pakistani batter Abdullah Shafique (42) with his sharpness at short leg. However, a slight error on the part of wicket-keeper Alex Carey saved the right-handed batter.
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It all happened on the first ball of the 35th over when spinner Nathan Lyon was bowling round the wicket to Shafique, who defended a harmless delivery towards Labuschagne. Well-aware of Shafique’s whereabouts with regard to mobile feet, Labuschagne quickly threw the ball back towards Carey, who waited for the batter to lift his back leg.
As per expectations, Shafique’s leg did go up in the air. Carey, who cleverly tried to affect a run out, failed to do so after touching the stumps but not dislodging the bails.
As a result, providing a reason for Labuschagne to express astonishment at the Optus Stadium in the third session on Friday. To be fair to Carey, he literally had very little time to dislodge the bails as Shafique’s leg was in the air just for a fraction of a second.
“I hit the stumps, the bail doesn’t come off. I touched the stumps,” Carey was heard on the stump mic.
Post A Miss By Alex Carey, Nathan Lyon Dismissed Abdullah Shafique
Even after receiving a reprieve of a kind from Alex Carey, Shafique gave up his wicket following an intense battle involving Lyon. Trying to dominate each other on the back of understanding how a settled opponent could cause trouble, Shafique and Lyon entertained fans by putting on display determined performance individually.
Readers must note that Lyon came quite close to sending Shafique back to the pavilion in the 31st over as well. On the fourth ball, Shafique tried to tuck a delivery down the leg side. With Carey catching the ball, Lyon and other close infielders were convinced about Shafique edging the ball. Even though captain Pat Cummins challenged the on-field umpire’s decision after trusting his teammates, no edge was detected on replays.
Lyon, however, finally managed to take Shafique’s wicket on the second ball of the 37th over. Having already hit four fours off the off-spinner, Shafique was fancying hitting another one against a tossed-up delivery. That being said, owing to extra bounce, Shafique flicked the ball straight to batter David Warner at leg slip.
A 74-run opening partnership between Shafique and Imam-ul-Haq (38), however, must’ve come across as a morale-booster for fellow Pakistani batters in their first innings of the tour. Successfully negating the tough overs against a new ball, Pakistan would’ve happily agreed to score 132/2 in 53 overs at Stumps, Day 2, chasing the hosts’ first innings total of 487.
