Australia batsman Marnus Labuschagne was dismissed for the third consecutive innings by England pacer Mark Wood despite having made some technical adjustments to counter him as well. However, it started when Wood has had Labuschagne in the Boxing Day Test when he had caught the batsman at slips for just one run as well.
However, in the first innings of the fourth Ashes Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground, Wood once again dismissed Labuschagne while nicking a delivery off. And, Jos Buttler grabbed it and he got out for 28. In the second innings, Wood has once again dismissed him in a similar way when Ollie Pope – who was keeping in place of the injured Buttler picked the catch.
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Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting stated how Marnus Labuschagne reacted after his first two dismissals by switching to a back-and-across movement in the second innings in Sydney as well. Speaking on a video released by cricket.com.au, Ponting said: “It was a definite technical change. I saw that at the start of the second innings today. On the back of the way he was dismissed in Melbourne and the first innings here in Sydney, he would have felt that Wood had something on him. He had to change what he was doing to try and combat that. He was moving back and across further. He was also not bringing his front foot into the line as early as he was.”
Ponting further explained: “With guys who move like that, they move across outside the off-stump to cover their stumps. But when the bowler changes the angle up and goes wider on the crease, it feels like the ball is always coming back in to challenge your off-stump and that’s where Marnus got into trouble.”
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“And even the one today, you can probably say he nicked it probably because his footwork pattern had changed. If he hadn’t moved that far across, that would have been a ball he could have cut easily. But because he moved so far, that ball actually got too close to him to try and cut and that is why he nicked it,” Ricky Ponting concluded.
