Courtesy: Cricket Australia
The final session on day one of the second Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) Test match saw Mohammed Siraj shockingly clock 181.6 kmph on the speed gun during the Australian first innings at the Adelaide Oval in a viral video, causing a major stir in the world of cricket. But it’s quite clearly a speed gun malfunction since no fast bowler in cricket history has gone beyond 161.3 kmph speed, which is the fastest ball in the sport bowled by Shoaib Akhtar during the ICC Cricket World Cup in 2003.
The speed gun malfunction isn’t a new thing in the world of cricket, which is why Mohammed Siraj’s supposed 181.6 kmph delivery must have been way slower than it was depicted on Fox Cricket’s live broadcast, and it was easily hit for a four by Marnus Labuschagne towards the square third man region. The right-arm fast bowler had quite an eventful day with the ball in the final session on day one of the second BGT Test, but after delivering 10 overs, he wasn’t able to pick up a wicket for India.
Mohammed Siraj threw the ball angrily at Marnus Labuschagne in second BGT Test
Just a ball prior to the speed gun malfunction, Mohammed Siraj had an altercation with Marnus Labuschange, throwing the ball angrily towards him for stepping away from the crease when he was in the middle of his run-up. The reason for Labuschagne’s decision to not face the ball was due to one of the fans carrying a “beer snake” in his hand past the side screen during Mohammed Siraj’s delivery stride, which had distracted him, but the Indian fast bowler didn’t take too kindly to it.
After India were bundled out for just 180 runs in 44.1 overs in their first innings on day one with Mitchell Starc registering his best Test figures of 6/48, the Indian fast bowlers had all to do in the final session of play. Jasprit Bumrah induced an outside edge of Nathan McSweeney’s bat, but the catch was put down by Indian wicket-keeper Rishabh Pant, but shortly after, the Indian vice-captain got just reward for his fine spell of bowling, getting Usman Khawaja 13(35) caught at first slip, where Rohit Sharma took a smart catch.
The other two frontline Indian pacers Mohammed Siraj and Harshit Rana didn’t allow the Australian top order to get away, but they didn’t pick up any wickets either, which meant that the hosts were 86/1 at the close of play on day one.
