Watch: Mohammed Shami sent off-stump cartwheeling to dismiss Peter Handscomb during the fourth Test match of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, in Ahmedabad today (March 9).
The Australian openers, Travis Head (32) and Usman Khawaja, put on 61 on the flattest wicket of the series after Steve Smith won the toss and opted to bat.
R Ashwin claimed Head and Shami got Marnus Labuschagne (3) in quick succession and Australia went to lunch at 79-2. Khawaja and Steve Smith took control in the second session to stretch the total to 151-2 before Smith (38) played on to the stumps off Ravindra Jadeja.
Shami bowled on the off-stump. Handscomb, perhaps deeper inside his crease than he should have been, read the line but expected the ball to hold its line, and tried to defend along a middle-stump line.
The ball deviated ever so slightly, just enough to beat Handscomb’s (17) outer edge and hit the off-stump, sending it cartwheeling, and Australia became 191-4.
“Peter Handscomb has always had a peculiar way of playing fast bowling,” said Dinesh Karthik on commentary. “A man known for his seam position gets one to just straighten a bit, and that’s more than enough. When you’re standing so deep in the crease, it’s very hard to follow the ball once you’ve missed it. An absolute peach of a delivery, but more done by the technique than anything else. You can see he’s way too deep in the crease, which is OK but then you can’t cover the stumps. So what does happen is if the ball moves a little bit either in or out, he is caught on the crease and it feels like anything he misses is going to be lbw or bowled, and that’s when playing fast bowling becomes challenging.”
At the time of writing, Australia were 191-4, with Khawaja on 80 and Cam Green on 10.
