Watch: Middlesex’s Shaheen Afridi was right on the money on his Middlesex debut, sending back Glamorgan’s Marnus Labuschagne, who shouldered arms to a delivery that caught an inside edge and crashed into his leg stump.

The Shaheen versus Labuschagne face-off was the highlight of all the chatter leading up to the Division Two game in Cardiff, with the two having contested against each other in the recent Pakistan-Australia Test series. Shaheen was called into action right away, sharing the new ball with Toby Roland-Jones, who made the first breakthrough, dismissing Andrew Salter for a duck.

Labuschagne walked in at his customary position of No.3 and spent the next half hour rebuilding alongside the other opener, skipper David Lloyd. He’d faced 24 balls for his eight, when he tried to leave a Shaheen delivery, bowled from over the wicket. It turned out to be a misjudgment, though: the ball bounced higher than expected, clipping the inside half of his bat and crashing into his leg stump. Labuschagne, the No.1 ranked ICC Test batter, could only look back in disappointment, shaking his head as he walked off.

The left-arm quick wasn’t quite done: off the very next ball, he had Sam Northeast caught at second slip, the batter wafting at a full delivery outside off to leave Shaheen on a hat-trick. It was Roland-Jones who took the next scalp though, dismissing Kiran Carlson the following over to make it three ducks out of four for Glamorgan.

Scorecard: You can follow the Middlesex v Glamorgan game here.

Watch the Shaheen delivery to dismiss Labuschagne:

📺 | SHAHEEN BOWLS MARNUS
Take a look at how @iShaheenAfridi removed Marnus Labuschagne 🔥

Not a bad first @CountyChamp wicket, eh?#OneMiddlesex pic.twitter.com/Rpp0UXRx5r

— Middlesex Cricket (@Middlesex_CCC) April 21, 2022