Sydney, Jan 5 (IANS) England captain Ben Stokes and Australian batter Marnus Labuschagne were involved in a heated exchange during the third session on Day 2 of the fifth Ashes Test, leading to a fiery moment in the middle of the crease, with the England skipper firing off some explosive words at Labuschagne.
Travis Head hit successive boundaries off the England captain to end the 29th over, and tensions rose afterwards. It looked as if Labuschagne had infuriated Stokes after the Aussie batter appeared to back away from his crease during Stokes’ run-up.
As Stokes passed the Australian players, he exchanged words with Labuschagne and gestured towards him, escalating the confrontation. Stokes then turned and approached the Aussie, putting his arm around his shoulders in a seemingly harsh manner. They exchanged words before the umpire intervened, after which they parted ways.
The exact conversation isn’t clear, but former Aussie skipper Ricky Ponting, speaking on Channel 7, believes Stokes told Labuschagne, ‘Three times, three times you’ve done it to me.’
Stokes also appeared to tell Labuschagne to ‘shut the f*** up’ when the Aussie batter began to talk back. Meanwhile, Mark Waugh in commentary for Fox Cricket said, “Marnus Labuschagne is hanging around like, ‘I shouldn’t be out here’, but you can’t play the game that way. You’re out there. You’re playing. You’ve got to get on with it.”
On the first ball after the confrontation between the two, a careless shot from Labuschagne, who had been so smart up to that point with his decision-making, but he sends that one right to Jacob Bethell at gully for a simple catch.
“Has Stokes got inside his mind? Did the mind games Labuschagne try to play with Stokes backfire? It’s happened before. We’ve seen it before. When he’s out of his bubble, funny things can happen,” Ponting said.
Reacting to the matter, former England pacer Stuart Broad said on 7 Cricket, “This is all going at Marnus Labuschagne. Something Marnus is doing is annoying Ben Stokes, whether it’s keeping him waiting at the top of his mark, just reminding him to speed up at times at non-striker’s end.”
–IANS
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