Australia all-rounder Beau Webster, who generally bowls pace, pulled a rabbit out of the hat when he dismissed Sri Lanka’s Ramesh Mendis with off-spin during day three of the second Test between the two sides at Galle.
Webster was summoned by captain Steve Smith to bowl the 59th over of Sri Lanka’s second innings. Much to everyone's surprise, he went to his mark to bowl off-spin. The first three balls yielded no runs before Kusal Mendis tucked the fourth one around leg to steal a single. The next delivery was when Webster landed the sucker punch, with the other Mendis – Ramesh – at the receiving end of it.
The ball was flighted on off. Upon pitching, it extracted some bounce and turn. Mendis attempted to play it off the front foot but couldn’t control the bounce as the ball popped off the sticker of the bat, handing a regulation catch to Travis Head at short leg. The batter’s uneventful six-ball stay came to an end without opening his account.
Beau Webster takes a wicket with his offies!
— 7Cricket (@7Cricket) February 8, 2025
Travis Head with the safe hands at bat pad 🤲#SLvAUS pic.twitter.com/UyYAyzey48
An elated Webster set off in celebration before being hugged and congratulated by his teammates. The dismissal was Webster’s second in his three Tests thus far. The most striking aspect of it is just a month back, on Test debut, Webster snared Shubman Gill with pace in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy to claim his first Test victim.
At 202 cm tall, Webster is a middle-order batter who bowled some decent off-spin, taking 44 first-class wickets in 47 matches at an average of 44.7 between 2014 and 2020.
It was during the COVID-19 lockdown when the all-rounder turned to pace bowling in an attempt to be a more multifaceted cricketer. That his first-class team Tasmania’s home ground Bellerive Oval offered more help for seamers gave him another advantage.
In the match, Sri Lanka went to stumps at 211-8, leading Australia by just 54 runs in their second innings. Matthew Kuhnemann (4-52) and Nathan Lyon (3-80) shared seven wickets between them, while Webster picked up one to give the visitors a realistic chance for a 2-0 clean sweep.
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