Mark Waugh caught up in embarrassing blunder after slamming Pakistan's poor fielding
The Australian cricketing great while delivering a masterclass on fielding embarrassingly put down a slips catch.
Aussie cricket great Mark Waugh has fallen victim to an all-time stitch-up on day four of the Boxing Day Test. Waugh has been one of Pakistan's biggest critics in the second Test, repeatedly taking aim at them butchering chances in the field.
After a Mitch Marsh edge was put down by Abdullah Shafique at first slip when Australia was struggling on day three at 4/46 Waugh gave the Pakistani an earful, calling for him to be hooked from the slips cordon as it wasn't the first chance he's put down this series.
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"I think you’ve got to get Shafique out of there," Waugh said on Fox Cricket. "He has not looked like catching one all series. He’s hung on to one, only just. At some stage, you’ve got to get the hook out and say, ‘Out of there son’.
"It’s just like a crocodile jaw trying to catch a ball. It’s unfortunate but you’ve got to get him out of there. His confidence is so low at the moment. How’s he going to catch the next one? You’ve just got to get him out of there and get someone else in. Babar’s a good catcher, he should be in at slip. Shafique, go and have a roam in the paddock out wide."
Waugh is renowned as one of Australia's greatest-ever slips fielders and before day four got underway he decided to deliver a masterclass on how to catch in the slips cordon. As Michael Vaughan began throwing balls to his right-hand side for Waugh to demonstrate how to catch, one low opportunity was beyond the Australian great who put it down, which led to a chorus of laughter from his colleagues.
After returning to the commentary box Kerry O’Keeffe and Ian Smith couldn't hold in their laughter as they took potshots at the former Test batsman. "Oh no," Waugh muttered as O’Keeffe and Smith began talking through the dropped catch.
"I thought I moved alright," Waugh said. "I was good when it was close to me. The one I dropped it actually hit me high in the hand. I pre-meditated it actually." The pair then said they wished Shafique had come over and given some back to the cricketing legend.
"I was expecting Shafique to come over and speak to you about it actually,” Smith said. “That would have been gold if Abdullah Shafique had come over and said, ‘Excuse me, Mark, I noticed the way you moved a little slow there’," O’Keeffe added. "Bradman was judged on his last innings. And you’ll be judged on your last catch because of this sucker. Lucky to get a hand to it."
Mir Hamza insists Abdullah Shafique's best position is in the slips cordon
Mir Hamza leapt to Shafique's defence after the opener put down his second sitter. He dropped David Warner early in Australia's first innings before putting down Marsh in the second. Shafique was swapped from first to second slip with Salman Ali Agha in the final session but Hamza insisted that his place was in the cordon despite seemingly struggling there in the second Test.
"Abdullah is one of the best fielders in Pakistan, and dropped catches are part of the game. It’s OK," Hamza said at the end of day three.
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