In the battle between Mohammed Shami and Marnus Labuschagne, it was the Indian bowler who not only clean bowled the No. 1 Test batter but helped India make a comeback right after Lunch when it looked like Australia will build their innings with the help of Steve Smith and Labuschagne. India are currently locking horns with Australia at The Oval in the World Test Championship (WTC) Final on Wednesday (June 7).
Australia lost opener Usman Khawaja early off Mohammed Siraj‘s delivery and David Warner, who showed signs of returning to form, played a decent knock of 43 runs from 60 balls. But before lunch, he became Shardul Thakur’s victim. Despite the early wickets, Australia were in a decent position.
But right after lunch, when Labushagne faced Shami’s length ball and went forward to defend, the ball hit the inside edge and went past the Aussie batter to shatter the stumps. This is what India wanted from Shami as he sent the big fish into packing. Labuschagne scored just 26 runs off 62 balls with three boundaries.
Watch Labuschagne’s dismissal here:
Related: “I want to win championships,” Rohit Sharma wants nothing less than a trophy at WTC Final
Check Twitter’s reactions to Marnus Labuschagne’s dismissal by Mohammed Shami
Though Mohammed Shami was able to give a huge breakthrough, this did not stop Steve Smith and Travis Head a bit from attacking the bowlers. Both the batters took Australia past 150 before 45 overs and Head is also a few runs away from reaching his half-century (at the time of writing this).
Though the match is going on at a slow pace except for Head’s boundaries, nothing much is happening, but fans and experts are talking about Ravichandran Ashwin’s WTC Final snub. He failed to feature in the XI just because India wanted a fourth seamer due to the English condition.
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