Australian star batter Marnus Labuschagne believes that their team could have applied themselves better on Day 1, as most of their batters got well set on the middle before being dismissed by England bowlers on the 1st innings of the crucial 4th test in Manchester.
Winning the toss, England’s skipper Ben Stokes opted to bowl 1st on the wickets that had assistance for the bowlers, Australian batters played exceedingly well on Day 1, as most of the Aussies batters looked comfortable against the England bowlers in most parts of their innings before dismissed towards the end of the Day’s play.
Speaking to the media after the End of Day 1’s play, Marcus Labuschagne said that they want to take the game day by day and reckons that they could have been better on the 1st innings if the batters went on to score big runs after being settled in the middle.
“It’s one of those… we’re so close (to the urn)… we’ve just got to take it day by day. Whenever you finish a day with a three in front of it, it’s never a bad day. It obviously could have been a much bigger day, we had six guys get themselves in and I think whenever you do that and one of your big guns doesn’t get a big score, It’s pretty disappointing.
“Especially when you’re talking about guys getting in the 40s and 50s, so no one has gone on to get 60 to 80 even. You add those 20 runs and all of a sudden it ekes out to close to 400 and that really puts a big dent in it,” Marnus Labuschagne said.
Australian batter Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Travis Head, and Mitchell Marsh were dismissed after being settled in the middle as they could not get past the scores of 40s and 50s in the game and the England pacers bowled exceedingly well to pick up the wickets at the crucial interval to keep their very much in the game at the end of Day 1.
300, I Think That’s A Really Good Score So Far – Marnus Labuschagne
Marnus Labuschagne believes that they have played well in the game so far to get 300 runs is a good score on Day 1 and reckons that the wicket still has a lot of grass on it, which their bowlers can utilize during their bowling innings, as went in with all-round pace attack.
“I think we played really well… I probably didn’t reiterate that enough… we just didn’t go on. 300, I think that’s a really good score so far. I think there was a lot of grass on that wicket, it was quite thatchy, and it was tough to score,” Marnus Labuschagne added
The Baggy Green finished Day 1 play with 299-8 with every batter contributing to the team’s score and the Aussies tailenders will look to add some runs on the board whereas England will look to clean up the tail on Day 2 and put a strong performance in their batting innings on Day 2.