Ashes 2023 | Twitter reacts as Marnus nearly wells up after Root's extraordinary grab ends laborious grind

SportsCafe Desk

BySportsCafe Desk, SportsCafe Editor

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The saying goes, 'In England, every batter has a ball with their name on it,' as Marnus Labuschagne learned the hard way. His 82-ball stay at the crease came to a sudden end on Friday after Joe Root invoked his Ultra Instinct to take an absolute blinder and almost reduce Labuschagne to tears.

England took advantage of overcast conditions at The Oval to brilliantly constrict overnight Australian batters Usman Khawaja and Marnus Labuschagne with disciplined pace bowling in the opening session of the fifth Ashes Test's Day 2. Through the first 17 overs, the hosts conceded a paltry 30 runs as Labuschagne particularly bore the grunt with some hard knocks to his body and it only seemed a matter of time before something gave way. Even so, the centurion from the previous game seemed to be expecting the fruits of his labour and was left in utter despair when a stunning catch in the slip cordon beckoned him to a slow walk back to the pavilion with the team score reading 91/2.

The incident occurred in the 42nd over of the innings as Mark Wood came on to bowl his second spell of the day with Marnus on strike. The express speedster sent a warning signal with an explosive delivery on the second ball of the over that climbed past the batter and into Jonny Bairstow's gloves. Two balls later, the red cherry again took off after hitting the pitch, this time dealing a painful blow to Marnus' body on its way. Having stood his ground through all that chaos, the 29-year-old ended up pushing his bat loosely at the very next delivery which was angling into fourth stump and only managed a thick edge for his efforts.

However, Marnus seemed to have somehow survived his fate as Bairstow refused to put in a dive with the Dukes perfectly splitting him and Root at first slip, until the former England skipper flung himself to his left and stuck out a hand out of instinct. The ball somehow stuck in his palm despite having almost gone past him and sent the crowd into complete frenzy. Marnus could not believe his luck, having worked extremely hard for his 9 runs at a torrid strike rate of 10.97, and was seen mouthing off as he left the pitch at a turtle's pace. Twitterati could not help but sympathize with the batter given his sorry expressions but at the same time heaped praise at Root's excellent grab.  

What a catch

Correct

Sorry mate

Yup

Tailender

True

Amazing

Yes please!

Walk back

Stop it

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