WATCH, AUS vs SL | Karunaratne embarrassed after Murphy rubbishes nonchalant leave with seed stuff
In the history of cricket, the Australian cricket team is often synonymous with tough characters and dominance. As the trend continues in the 21st century, the Kangaroos under Steve Smith showed great character in Sri Lanka where a Todd Murphy delivery badly embarrassed veteran Dimuth Karanatne.
Resuming from 136/5 at the start of the fourth day, the Sri Lankan lower order crumbled against the Aussies, bundling for 165 with Matthew Kuhnemann claiming a fifer. With the follow-on being enforced, the Lankan batters further failed to express themselves with the bat, highlighted by a Todd Murphy jaffa that knocked down former captain Karunaratne in an embarrassing way.
Mitchell Starc trapped opener Oshada Fernando in the third over of the third innings followed by Murhpy getting the other Lankan opener in the next over. He came around the wicket and bowled a length delivery, pitched outside the stumps. Karunaratne, thinking it to be a widish one intended to leave it alone. To his surprise, the ball drifted into the left-hander with the angle and kissed the top of the off stump. Subsequently, the southpaw was stunned for a second before trudging off the field on his 99th Test.
Uh eh!
They say there are two types of leaves...
— 7Cricket (@7Cricket) February 1, 2025
No prizes for guessing which category this Karunaratne one falls into 🫣#SLvAUS pic.twitter.com/6LBQ0EOlk4