Frustrated Indian players left the Adelaide Oval on Friday night unable to make the breakthrough they had hoped for, but one Australian fan managed to achieve what they couldn’t.
Australian batsman Marnus Labuschagne and rookie Nathan McSweeney managed to survive the night shift under the lights in Adelaide to put the home team in a strong position heading into day two.
With the wolves at his door, Marnus Labuschagne got into a fight with the biggest and baddest of them all.
The struggling Australian batsman advanced to Adelaide Oval against India with his Test career on the line.
He then harassed Jasprit Bumrah.
Amid a run of poor results (eight scored in 10 runs in his previous nine innings), Labuschagne’s place was openly in doubt when he came out to bat in the second Test against India.
This Australian fan stopped playing late in the day and crossed the screen with a beer snake.
Australian batsman Marnus Labuschagne saw the humor in the situation, but Indian bowler Siraj became enraged.
But Labuschagne (20no) and Test rookie Nathan McSweeney (38no) won Friday night’s battle under the Adelaide Oval lights, guiding Australia to 1-86 in response to India’s 180.
However, there was one guy who managed to get under Labuschagne’s guard.
The anonymous guy carrying a huge beer snake made of empty beer glasses that forced him back while Indian bowler Mohammad Siraj smoked.
The fan had decided to run across the top of the vision screen, but Marnus was more bewildered than agitated by the distraction.
“He’s had a good day,” laughed former England captain Michael Vaughan in a comment.
While the Australians could see the humour, Siraj was left fuming.
‘Siraj, I’m not happy. It’s not often you see a fast bowler get stopped just before releasing the ball,” former Australian batsman Greg Blewett said on Channel 7.
Before the match, Labuschagne captain Pat Cummins predicted that Labuscgagne would be more proactive in a bid to break out of his poor form.
But not even Cummins would have predicted it.
Labuschagne had a great day for the Australians after recovering from the Perth disaster
Labuschagne squarely and theatrically engaged in a duel with the world’s number one fast bowler, Bumrah.
The Indian bowler, with a pink ball moving appreciably under the lights, had just taken a wicket but was nearing the end of his spell.
Bumrah delivered a charged drama to the dispirited Labuschagne.
The Australian played a defensive shot and shouted “wait” as the ball rolled towards Bumrah, daringly glaring at the Indian star.
Bumrah sent a scorching next delivery past Labschagne’s outside edge – the Australian looked back at the pacer as the Indians screeched in the background.
“The heat is on, this is fierce Test cricket and Marnus is not taking a step back,” Australian great Adam Gilchrist said in commentary for Fox Sports.
“It’s like a boxing match, Marnus says ‘come on’,” added Gilchrist’s fellow commentator, former England captain Michael Vaughan.
Labuschagne survived in the end. The Queenslander, whose previous nine knocks were three, two, six, 90, two, one, five, three and one not out, faced 18 balls before scoring a run.
Labuschagne congratulates McSweeney as duo take control of day one for Aussies
He hit his 19th delivery for two, looked at leg for four two balls later and then scored three over mid-wicket.
Labuschagne and McSweeney, who played some good shots in their third Test innings, put Australia in a position of power as the second day began.
“It was a good way to end the day,” said Australian pacer Mitchell Starc, who took a career-high 6-48 in India’s innings.
“The last session is possibly the most difficult time of batting… for Marnie and McSweeney to fight against that sustained pressure of a quality bowling attack and come out on the other end with the opportunity to continue tomorrow (Saturday), it was fantastic.” of them.”
Starc then added, pointedly, that the pair’s performance came with “obviously quite a bit of outside noise, particularly from this (media) room.”