Australia felt the full effects of Sam Konstas riling up Jasprit Bumrah on day one of the final Test of the 2024/25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy at the SCG today (January 3), when Usman Khawaja was dismissed by the final ball of the day. The incident sparked memories of a similar passage of play in Sydney over two decades ago.
Teenager Konstas continued his explosive start to Test cricket when he walked down the wicket and crunched a four off Bumrah's first ball of the innings. The Australia openers had three overs of the evening session to face after India were bowled out for 185 having chosen to bat. After seeing out the rest of Bumrah's opening over, Konstas was again on strike for the final over of the day, taking a single off the third ball to put Khawaja on strike.
Having left Bumrah's fourth delivery alone, Khawaja prepared to face the penultimate delivery, but stopped Bumrah just as he was about to start his run-up, in a presumed effort to ensure the third over of the day would also be the last. Bumrah was visibly annoyed by the delay, gesturing to Khawaja with both of his arms outstretched. Konstas began to walk towards Bumrah from the non-striker's end before the umpire got in between the two players to stop a confrontation. When Bumrah did bowl the ball it was left alone by Khawaja, but he was unable to negotiate the final ball of the day, which saw him caught at second slip. Bumrah hardly celebrated the wicket at first, instead turning around and facing down Konstas before being mobbed by his teammates.
Almost 22 years ago on the same ground, Dean Jones learned a similar lesson to Konstas over antagonising a fast bowler in their prime.
During the 1993 World Series Cup final, Dean Jones came in at No.3 to face a rampant Curtly Ambrose, who had just dismissed David Boon. Before facing his first delivery, Jones delayed proceedings by walking over to Mark Taylor at the other end for a discussion, then also walking over to umpire Terry Prue. He was complaining about Ambrose's white wristband which he alleged was causing him problems facing the white ball.
It's 24 years to the day since Dean Jones made a big, BIG mistake!
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) January 16, 2017
This is gold from @ProfDeano, @bowlologist and Curtly!
via @OptusSport pic.twitter.com/NuHbIVHt0h
Jones later said of his reasoning: “I noticed Ambrose was bowling the ball on a shoebox on the off-stump and Boonie was struggling to hit him off the square. And I said, hang on, he wears white sweatbands for the white ball and red ones for the red ball, and we are looking for release points. And I thought, if I get him upset, I think it might make him bowl a little loose. I looked at him, and said, ‘Curtly, take your sweatbands off. Please.’”
While Ambrose, like Bumrah, was visibly frustrated, he was eventually persuaded to remove the wristband. He later said: “I found that to be a strange request. What’s the big deal? What is the reason? It’s not something I’ve just put on, I’ve been doing it all my career. I was very reluctant to do it. If you see the footage, I thought I wasn’t going to do it because the request was nonsense really.”
Ambrose retaliated by bowling at full tilt to Taylor, who was also batting with a broken thumb. When Taylor came back on strike, he kept up the searing pace, drawing a leading edge from the left hander, which was caught by Phil Simmons. Ambrose also went on to dismiss Ian Healy, Tony Dodemaide and Craig McDermott, West Indies winning the match by 25 runs.
Jones later admitted it was a mistake to goad Ambrose: “It was done through sheer desperation. I felt I had to do anything to keep my spot. It’s funny now but it wasn’t back then. I was trying to save my career and people forget that. I was thinking that if Damien Martyn comes into the team and makes 50 or so, then I’m never going to get picked again. Facing four of the fastest bowlers in history with a busted thumb that had been operated on just four days earlier was definitely not funny.”
Play will resume at the SCG tomorrow (January 4), with Bumrah already by far the leading wicket-taker of the series on 31. Eight more wickets in the Test would see him top the all-time standings for the most wickets taken in a Test series in Australia by a touring bowler.
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