Usman Khawaja retires hurt while batting due to severe injury during Australia vs South Africa World Cup match at Old Trafford in Manchester
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During the 45th match of the ongoing ICC Cricket World Cup match between Australia and South Africa, the Aussie left-handed batsman Usman Khawaja was forced to retired hurt quite early on in his innings adding to the already existing injury woes in the Australian squad.
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It all happened on the third delivery of the fourth over. The South African leg-spinner- Imran Tahir bowled a juicy full toss on Khawaja’s pads to which the southpaw swept towards the square-leg region. It was an easy two as the ball went in the gap, but Khawaja was clearly in decent amount of pain, to trust and risk his struggling feet.
He immediately signalled for the physio to arrive, and at hindsight seemed to be struggling with his hamstring. The hamstring injury was perhaps way too serious as the 32-year-old limped off the field, with just five balls into his innings.
Australia in deep trouble
Chasing a challenging total of 325/6 posted by South Africa, Australia, at the time of writing had already lost its two wickets, with Usman Khawaja too unlikely to return back to play. Their skipper Aaron Finch (3 off 4), went back to the hut in just the fourth over of the innings, thereby providing his team a major setback considering the brilliant run of form he was in throughout the tournament.
Australia were 63/2 in 14 overs, with David Warner (34* off 43) and all-rounder Marcus Stoinis (11* off 26) at the crease looking to steady the ship.
Earlier, in the first innings the Cricketing fraternity witnessed what South Africa are capable of as a team, despite a dismal performance in the tournament throughout. Skipper Faf Du Plessis (100 off 94) and Rassie van der Dussen (95 off 97) played sublime knocks to power their team’s total to 325/6 in front of a strong Aussie bowling attack.
