Mohammed Siraj was not pleased with Marnus Labuschagne backing away at the last minute. The Indian pacer hurled the ball in anger. The Adelaide pink-ball Test between India and Australia is heating up. Tempers flared in the 25th over of the hosts’ innings after Marnus Labuschagne backed away at the last moment, leaving pacer Mohammed Siraj angry. The right-handed batter stepped aside after seeing someone in his eyeline, however, Siraj did not take too kindly to this act and he hurled the ball wide off the stumps.
Siraj then shouted an expletive at Labuschagne. Both the players then engaged in some arm-waving, clearly indicating that neither of them was too pleased. Labuschagne pulled out at the last minute after a spectator walked right behind the bowler. The fan was seen holding several cups in his hand. He was right in the batter’s eyeline, hence it was fair on the part of Labuschagne to pull out.
However, Siraj’s anger was also justified as pulling up when he was in stride could have resulted in an injury. The proceedings resumed soon after. On the very next delivery, Labuschagne hit a resounding four off the bowling of Siraj and the Indian pacer had nothing to say after that.
The pacer then quickly completed his over. However, he walked back in anger towards his fielding position, possibly not happy with whatever transpired in the middle. Mitchell Starc takes six wickets to bundle out India for 180. Earlier, Australia pacer Mitchell Starc took six wickets to help the hosts bowl out India for just 180 in the first innings of the Adelaide Test.
Speaking after India’s innings ended, Starc said, “Feel like the ball has been coming out well, we did not play that bad, they played better than us in Perth. Nothing really changes game by game, was a nice start.” “The pink ball goes through weird patches, won’t do much, and then does go, day 1 you expect with a little bit of grass to do a bit, maybe with the forecast we have it dries out a bit later on but apart from the first hour when we were a bit wide we were good,” he added.
For India, Nitish Kumar Reddy’s 42-run knock proved to be vital. Through this innings, the visitors were able to take their score past 150. KL Rahul and Shubman Gill also registered scores of 37 and 31 respectively. Pat Cummins and Scott Boland also took two wickets each to bundle out India cheaply in the first innings of the 2nd Test.
