Scorecard<\/a><\/p>\nMarnus Labuschagne has been front and centre for an era of Australian cricket.<\/p>\n
Chirping, chewing and, with bat in hand, often appearing to idolise and mimic his team-mate Steve Smith.<\/p>\n
Smith has been ruled out of the enthralling decisive Test against South Africa with a neck injury.<\/p>\n
Without him, Australia wanted their number three to feast at last chance saloon, where he has been perched for an eternity, on day two in Cape Town.<\/p>\n
The 32-year-old lasted five deliveries and did not score a run.<\/p>\n
Labuschagne failed to scored a Test century for the 48th time in a row – a new record for the number of consecutive innings a batter in Australia\u2019s top four has waited to raise his bat at three figures.<\/p>\n
“That will never be broken,” said former Australia quick Jason Gillespie on ABC.<\/p>\n
“I say that because, respectfully, I don’t think anyone will be given that length of time again.”<\/p>\n
There was a time when, from his insertion into the 2019 Ashes as a concussion substitute until the end of England’s next quest to win back the urn, Labuschagne averaged 65 in Test cricket.<\/p>\n
Repeat that over a Test career and only Sir Donald Bradman’s mark of 99.94 would be ahead. <\/p>\n
Instead, since his last Test century at Old Trafford in 2023, he averages 24.77.<\/p>\n
Labuschagne may get one more chance in this Test, should Australia not progress from their position of 330-4, leading by one run, and dismiss South Africa before needing to pad up again. <\/p>\n
Even that may not be enough.<\/p>\n
“I just feel it is too far gone now,” Gillespie added. “It is a very big sample size. Australia are at a point where they need to look elsewhere.”<\/p>\n
Labuschagne’s technique has been pored over again and again as his slump progressed.<\/p>\n
In August, the great Ricky Ponting, one of his predecessors as Australia’s number three, called for the axe to fall. <\/p>\n
“He can’t score off the back foot,” was Ponting’s cutting remark.<\/p>\n
Having batted nicely in three or four innings in this series only to give it away after reaching 30, here he was stuck on the crease, playing back to a full ball and nicking spinner Simon Harmer to slip.<\/p>\n
“That’s nerves and the pressure the selectors have put him under for an extended period of time,” said former Australia batter Simon Katich on SEN Radio.<\/p>\n
“They put him in this position by not making the decision to give him a breather.”<\/p>\n
It felt like all of Labuschagne’s issues collapsing into one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Third Test, Cape Town (day two of five) South Africa 329: Ackerman 95; Starc 6-72 Australia 330-4: Inglis…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":816806,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[59,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-816805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-gb","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=816805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/816806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=816805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=816805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=816805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}