Queensland Bulls’ ploy to field first and exploit the WACA deck proved lethal with Michael Neser coming to the fore. He removed Cameron Bancroft and Jayden Goodwin for golden ducks with the new ball Mitchell Marsh followed suit after getting a brisk start. However, Hilton Cartwright’s 59-run fourth-wicket stand with Sam Whiteman set up a mammoth stand with Josh Inglis scoring a century alongside the team skipper to do the bulk of the rescuing task. With Whiteman and Inglis negating the visitors for a good period of time, Queensland captain Marnus came up with some outlandish innovations in the field.
Generally, a part-time wrist spinner, Marnus adapted to the WACA conditions by donning the hat of a seam bowler. He intended to bowl bumpers at the West Australia pair before coming up with a queer field position. Having bowled five dots against a well-set Inglis in the 66th over, he summoned debutant and cap 522 Tom Straker near the area where the bowler starts off for the run up. As the 19-year-old young gun stranded straight in the line of the batter and the umpire – which violates the MCC laws – Marnus was seen dragging him by pulling his trousers. The Aussie took everyone by surprise by positioning Straker just a tad wide off the straightish position, towards mid off. Although the plan did quite yield the desired result, Marnus did get a scalp pf Cameron Gannon later in the game as Western Australia’s score reflects 464/9 in 124.1 overs at the time of writing.
‘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
