Australia were tottering at 46 for 4 in 15 overs in the second Test against Pakistan when Abdullah Shafique dropped a sitter at first slip to reprieve Mitch Marsh. On air was possibly the greatest slip fielder of all time Mark Waugh, and he couldn’t hold himself back.
First he went after Shafique. “Like a crocodile jaw trying to take a catch. Get him out of there.”
Then when he saw the replays that showed that the second slipper Agha Salman had a rather easy chance to grab the catch on rebound but he wasn’t ready. His hands weren’t even cupped and he had turned around rather slowly and the ball popped right in front of him, almost through his hands.
Mark Waugh chirped up again, even as co-commentator Isa Guha would remark that Salman was “pretty relaxed there”.
“I wouldn’t be relaxed if I was relying on Shafique! I would be like a seagull on a hot chip! There is one bloke, you wouldn’t be relaxing standing next to. Sorry Shafique! At this moment he is a back-stop”. Back stop is a short third man type stopper rather than a catcher.
And Waugh sealed his comments on the catch with this: “That could be the game right there.”
Until then, Pakistan were all over Australia. They had two wickets before lunch as Usman Khawaja and Marnus Labuschagne fell.
"It's like a crocodile jaw trying to catch a ball."
Abdullah Shafique hands Mitch Marsh a life on 20 #AUSvPAK pic.twitter.com/NMlTKHn3t5
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) December 28, 2023
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Shaheen Afridi got a ball to kick up and leave Khawaja in the first over to induce a nick through to the keeper Mohammad Rizwan. And then off the last ball before lunch, he would take out Labuschagne.
Two balls prior, the captain Shan Masood, whose captaincy has been getting raves from Mark Waugh and Adam Gilchrist, moved a leg slip in place. Then Afridi had that final ball curve on the legs and despite that fielder, Labuschagne went for an instinctive leg glance, and nicked it behind.
Post lunch, the left-handed seamer Mir Hamza hurled a short ball at David Warner who was beaten by the lack of pace on that. He was through with his pull shot rather early and dragged that ball from outside off on to his stumps.
Next ball was the ball of the innings. Hamza produced a pearler of an inswinger that was pretty full and started from outside off, and went through a waft from Travis Head to disturb the furniture.
Then Shafique dropped, and Australia, who took a 54-run first-innings lead, started to breathe easier.
Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.
