Border Gavaskar Trophy: With the spotlight on injured Australian pace bowler Josh Hazelwood’s replacement Scott Boland, the 35-year-old Boland was in the spotlight early on the opening day of the second Pink Ball Test match of the Border Gavaskar Trophy at Adelaide Oval.
The Australian bowler managed an edge from Indian opener KL Rahul and wicket-keeper Alex Carey completed the catch at 6.5 overs after Mitchell Starc had trapped Yashasvi Jaiswal lbw off the first ball of the Indian innings. Boland’s celebrations were short-lived as the ball was adjudged as a no-ball. With the no-ball being Boland’s eighth across his 11-Test match career, it also saw commentator and former England cricketer Isa Guha terming it as demoralising for a fast bowler.
“(There’s) nothing more demoralising as a bowler,” Guha said while commentating on Fox Cricket. It was Boland’s first ball in international cricket after he last played for Australia in the third Ashes Test last year. While Rahul was batting on 0 off 18 balls at the time the no-ball was called out by umpire Richard Illingworth, it also saw the next batsman, Virat Kohli, nearly entering the ground with Rahul trudging back after the ball was collected by wicket-keeper Alex Carey. “That’s terrible… oh my goodness, from joy to the total opposite. I reckon he’s wishing he didn’t ‘nick’ it now. He gets the wicket but the big shoe is just over the line or on the line; nothing behind the line. Ohh, that’s annoying,” former Australian cricketer Mark Waugh said while commentating on Fox Cricket.
Former Australian pacer Brett Lee too was in the commentary box when the incident happened and Lee could only exclaim at the agony faced by Boland. “Oh no,” Lee would say first before adding, “It’s an absolute peach of a delivery. KL Rahul knew straight away.”
Rahul though went onto play a knock of 37 runs off 64 balls before he was caught by Nathan McSweeney off the bowling of Starc.
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