{"id":371421,"date":"2024-02-29T00:56:19","date_gmt":"2024-02-29T01:56:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=371421"},"modified":"2024-02-29T04:03:15","modified_gmt":"2024-02-29T04:03:15","slug":"marnus-skating-on-thin-ice-as-dire-form-laid-bare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=371421","title":{"rendered":"Marnus 'skating on thin ice' as dire form laid bare"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australian batter Marnus Labuschagne<\/a> is "skating on thin ice" – according to \ufeffrenowned cricket statistician Ric Finlay – after returning another measly Test<\/a> score.<\/p>\n

The 29-year-old faced 27 balls in Wellington before nicking off to Scott Kuggeleijn to be caught at first slip for 1.<\/p>\n

It continues a dismal run of form for the No.3 batter who once averaged more than 70 in the game's purest format.<\/p>\n

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Labuschagne has reached triple figures only once in his past 36 Test innings. In that same period he's passed 50 on six occasions.<\/p>\n

During Australia's most recent summer – against Pakistan and the West Indies – his highest return was 63 and he made six scores under 10.<\/p>\n

\"Marnus<\/p>\n

Batting certainly wasn't easy at The Basin on Thursday morning but the mode of dismissal – hanging his bat outside his body and nicking off – has become all too familiar.<\/p>\n

"\ufeffHe looked very tentative didn't he," Aussie commentator Brendon Julian said of Labuschagne's wicket.<\/p>\n

"He didn't really want to come forward and just sort of sat on the crease.<\/p>\n

"He knew the ball was shaping but he was tentative. His front foot didn't really get down to the pitch, he was late \ufeffwith the bat coming down."<\/p>\n

Former Black Caps batter Craig McMillan was equally perplexed.<\/p>\n

"Strange\ufeff innings from Australia's No.3, very defensive," he said.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/RicFinlay\/status\/1763012261352964164?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw<\/a>https:\/\/twitter.com\/13DSmith\/status\/1763009545570537787?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw<\/a>https:\/\/twitter.com\/beastieboy07\/status\/1763006787123655106?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw<\/a><\/p>\n

"In the end it was his undoing."\ufeff<\/p>\n

Labuschagne enjoyed a purple patch of form after being called up as Steve Smith's concussion cover during the 2019 Ashes series in England.<\/p>\n

The follow summer Down Under he whacked three consecutive tons – \ufeffall over 140 – against Pakistan and New Zealand.<\/p>\n

He ended that summer that a 215 against the Black Caps in Sydney to cement his spot in the coveted No.3 \ufeffslot going forward.<\/p>\n

But a largely dire past 18 months with the bat has certainly cast his ongoing selection into doubt.\ufeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Australian batter Marnus Labuschagne is "skating on thin ice" – according to \ufeffrenowned cricket statistician Ric Finlay – after returning another measly Test score. The […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":371426,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371421"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=371421"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371421\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":371427,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371421\/revisions\/371427"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/371426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=371421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=371421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=371421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}