Australian middle-order batter Marnus Labuschagne has always been super eccentric and one of the most unorthodox players in the game right now. Currently, some of his methods were on display in the ongoing Sheffield Shield 2024-25 competition, which is Australia’s leading First Class competition.
Here, he’s captaining Queensland in their first round game against Western Australia at the WACA. Batting first, Western Australia piled on the runs for two consecutive days and that meant captain Labuschagne had to make a few unique decisions. One of them was bringing himself to bowl a couple of spells, and not even the leg-spin we’re used to see him bowling.
Labuschagne sets unique field; pulls fielder by pocket
We’ve seen Labuschagne bowling a few times in international cricket, but it’s always been leg-spin. Here, he brought himself on to bowl, and was delivering some fiery medium pacers to the WA batsmen. Cameron Bancroft and Josh Inglis scored centuries before getting dismissed and in one particular over, Labuschagne’s unique field placement caught everyone’s eyes.
He brought on of his fielders right next to himself at the top of his run-up. The commentators were obviously stunned as the fielder was standing exactly in a straight line behind the umpire. No one had seen this kind of a field placement before, but that’s what we’ve learnt to get used to seeing when Labuschagne is the man in question.
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Even the opponents and the umpires were shocked with the field placement, but it was all within the rules of the game. In fact, when he wasn’t happy with the fielder, he literally caught his pant pocket and dragged him to exactly where he wanted him to stand before he went and bowled another delivery. Watch that moment here:
‘I don’t think I’ve ever seen that!’
Marnus Labuschagne as #SheffieldShield captain is an experience 😂
Watch his full (and very entertaining) three-over spell from day one at the WACA: https://t.co/5oPc5eu6Jn pic.twitter.com/OCE2vNcxKR
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) October 9, 2024
When he was finally satisfied, he went ahead and bowled a bouncer on the next delivery. The fielder in question was Tom Straker who himself bowled 17 overs in the innings so far, when we last updated this page. Labuschagne bowled a spell of 6 overs, giving away only 5 runs and picking up the important wicket of Cameron Gannon for 53.
WA was finally bowled out for 464 on Day 2 of the match and now, we hand it over to Labuschagne the batter and not the bowler for Queensland’s reply in the 1st innings. He’s always been an entertaining cricketer and we hope to see him get a big score in this game, and continue the form through the tournament as well.
For similar updates from Sheffield Shield cricket in Australia, as well as other cricketing events from around the world, remember to always stay tuned to ReadScoops.com.
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