VIDEO | Lefty Jack Leach uses his right arm at deep square to effect incredible direct-hit run-out
That Jack Leach is your regular cricketer is evident from the fact that he doesn’t try much and instead relies on accuracy to get wickets. However, his accuracy went to a whole new level as the left-arm bowler effected a direct-hit run-out from deep square leg, and think what, with the right-arm.
A direct beneficiary of Somerset’s decision to throw their spinners a bone by making Taunton a spin paradise, Jack Leach was more at home than away in Sri Lanka. Not only he had a big role to play in England’s series whitewash away from home - for the first time since 1963 in New Zealand - he finished the series as England's equal-leading wicket-taker with Moeen Ali. However, his moment under the sun actually arrived when his direct throw dismissed Kusal Mendis - a potential threat on England’s way to victory.
In the 58th over of the Sri Lankan run-chase, Roshen Silva pushed the ball towards the backward square leg and started running for a single. Leach, who was completely knackered by the burden of bowling more overs than usual, was slow to reach the ball. But, when he saw that the duo of Silva and Mendis were going for a couple, he instantly ran first and threw the ball towards Adil Rashid in the non-striker’s end. The ball hit the stumps directly to push Sri Lanka to further danger, but the importance of the dismissal for Leach must have been way more than that.
Leach has never done anything on a cricket field with his right-hand. He bats left-handed and bowls with the same arm too. Even when he throws anything from the deep, he never used his dextrous arm to get going. But the Colombo crowd, albeit the small one, saw him turning ambidextrous and what a way it to show his strengths.
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