‘Amazing game’ – Marnus Labuschagne recalls dramatic County Championship performance

They had given Gloucestershire 593 runs and went into the last over needing two runs after centuries from Labuschagne and Sam Northeast. Mason Crane levelled the score with a single after four dot balls and brought No. 11 Jamie McIlroy on strike. He swung hard at Ajeet Dale and passed to James Bracey, who took off his right glove and took a superb one-handed catch to prepare the batsmen for a bye.

“When you’re chasing such a big score, it’s always important to take it one step at a time,” Labuschagne said. Sen Radio. “But the stadium we played in had a very fast outfield, so I felt like if we dominated the opponent and got some good runs and hits, things could quickly get out of hand.

“It’s always in the back of your mind, but you just take it one step at a time. Then you get down to 100, you invest a little more, you get a little more motivated, then you get down to 50, then you lose a few more wickets, and you think about whether you want to draw or go all-in and win.

“So there were a lot of ups and downs and even in the last over, I got a boundary on the last ball of the penultimate over of the day and that’s when we thought we had it home. We needed two runs in the last over and we got Mason Crane on strike. He ended up facing four dots and then got a single and so the number 11 batsman has to finish the job.

“It was an amazing game… we got their point and we couldn’t get any more.”

This match was Labuschagne’s last appearance in the County Championship in his spell with Glamorgan, which concludes with a T20 Blast match before returning to Australia. He will then join Queensland in their pre-season as the new captain before returning to England for an ODI series in mid-September.

“The ups and downs of the game are part of the challenge,” he said. “For me, it’s been a good opportunity to look back at how I’ve been successful before I came here, what I’ve done in other times when I’ve been playing well… I’ve done some technical work, I’ve done some work and it’s coming together really well. I’m well prepared for one-day cricket and Test cricket this summer.

“I always look at my game from a technical standpoint, looking for ways to improve and get better, and making sure I’m lining up my technique well and moving the ball well, all those kinds of things are really important to me.”

The four-day tie by 592 runs wasn’t the only memorable moment of Labuschagne’s season for Glamorgan, as he set social media ablaze with a stunning catch in the T20 Blast.

“It’s definitely the best catch I’ve ever caught on camera,” he said. “I took it in club cricket when I was 18 or 19 and the lads I played with in Queensland always say it was another really good catch, but unfortunately it didn’t happen because you can’t get it on camera.”

Labuschagne will be available for the first month of Queensland’s Sheffield Shield season, and could be available for longer depending on how the multi-format players are managed in the white-ball series against Pakistan in November. The first Test match against India begins in Perth on November 22.

“It’s something that’s boiling in the back of my mind,” he said of the possibility of playing against India, adding, “But when I play a game, I always try to focus on the here and now.”