VIDEO | D'Arcy Short pulls off stunning back-flick runout to leave Brad Hodge wonderstruck

01/04/2019

D'Arcy Short might have been ignored by the selectors for the ODIs series, but the BBL is his arena, and you can’t keep him out of it. Before scoring 64 runs to take Hobart Hurricanes to victory, he effected a swift motion backhand flick to run Moises Henriques out which left Brad Hodge surprised.

MS Dhoni’s cunning back-hand flick to dismiss Ross Taylor in Ranchi created a rage on social media and Dhoni’s immaculate presence of mind was praised by many. While that was a stunning disposition of Dhoni’s skillset, D'Arcy Short decided to pull one of his own in the match against Sydney Sixers today.

On the penultimate ball of the 12th over in the Sixers’ innings, Short bowled a googly which moved across the line and beat Henriques’ outside edge. However, wicket-keeper Matthew Wade was not so alert at that moment and failed to collect the ball. Henriques was also not sure where actually the ball went and he kept on searching for that until his partner at the other end Daniel Hughes started running for a bye.

Wade, however, by then realised that the ball was not that far away and by the time he collected it, Henriques had already set off for the run. So Wade didn’t waste any time and made a wayward throw at the bowler's end. Short was alive to the danger and collected the ball swiftly before backhanding that, while facing the other way, onto the stumps in a swift motion to dismiss Henriques. The act caught Brad Hodge by surprise and he compared that to Mark Waugh’s backhand flicks.

“That’s amazing skill, a little Mark Waugh backhand panther. D’Arcy Short, you can’t keep him out of the game at the moment,” Hodge said on Channel 7.