The Kennington Oval pitch delivered the promise in the first session of Day 1 of World Test Championship (WTC) final. As the pitch curator revealed to Ravichandran Ashwin on the eve of WTC final, the pitch had extra bounce and Mohammed Siraj made use of it straightaway. Marnus Labuschagne faced the heat as Siraj let the ball do the talking in bowling-friendly conditions.
Labuschagne's trouble stay at the crease
The incident took place on the first ball of eighth over. Siraj bowled a delivery that clocked 143 kmph. The length ball surprised Labuschagne with extra bounce as it hit him on left thumb. Labuschagne was trying to leave the ball but he copped a serious blow which led to him losing control of his bat which fell on the ground.
Labuschagne got some treatment in the middle from the physio. After the magic spray, Labuschagne took his guard. In the first session, he was troubled a lot by Indian pacers but survived. Few overs later, Umesh Yadav’s delivery hit Labuschagne on the gloves and fell short of the slip cordon.
The 28-year-old played second fiddle to David Warner who scored quickly. Warner scored 43 runs from 60 deliveries. He fell prey to a nothing delivery from Shardul Thakur which he tried to pull and got caught behind by Srikar Bharat who put in a dive to his right.
Labuschagne was batting on 26 off 61 deliveries at the end of first session. However, he could not do much in the second session. The first delivery from Mohammed Shami beat Labuschagne on the drive and crashed into stumps. The no.1 ranked ICC Test batter could not add a single run to his name after the break.
Siraj's exceptional spell
Earlier, Siraj had got the wicket of opener Usman Khawaja with the new ball. Siraj outsmarted Khawaja with an out-swinger from over the wicket. The southpaw edged the ball to Srikar Bharat as he got out for a 10-ball duck. In the first session, Siraj was exceptional with the new ball as he conceded 16 runs and bowled two maidens.
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