Sam Konstas and Nic Maddinson were involved in an extraordinary start to the Sheffield Shield match between New South Wales and Victoria at the SCG.
The pair took 30 runs off the first two overs – Konstas with 10 off Scott Boland and Maddinson with 20 from Fergus O’Neill – before Konstas was bowled attempting to sweep Boland from the 13th ball of the match.
“It was unexplainable really. I don’t know what was going on,” Phil Jaques, the former NSW coach and Test opener, said on commentary after Konstas’ dismissal.
Konstas, who made 3 and 22 against Queensland last week having returned early from the Sri Lanka tour before following that with a maiden one-day hundred, opened his account first ball with a streaky leading edge through point when was squared up by Boland.
To the second ball of the match he then brought out the reverse scoop that he played against Jasprit Bumrah earlier in the season and sent Boland over the slips to deep third. Next ball, he used his feet and drove past a diving mid-off before attempting another reverse scoop which he missed.
The over ended with two dots, including a relatively textbook push into the covers off the final delivery.
Konstas! Second ball of the match! 😱
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Then it was over to Maddinson. His intentions were clear first ball when he advanced at O’Neill and was beaten when he attempted to work him through the leg side towards the short boundary.
The next delivery he had some fortune when he angled an edge through the cordon, but there was little doubt with the following stroke when he used his feet and deposited O’Neill straight down the ground.
Things then went to another level when Maddinson turned his attention to the short boundary over mid-on with a free swing of the arms to a full delivery that was sent into the seats. It meant that, midway through the second over, captain Will Sutherland put a long on in place.
It didn’t stop Maddinson. This time he stayed in the crease and whipped a delivery from outside off just out of the reach of the fielder on the rope. The last ball of the over was short and wide with Maddinson attempting to upper cut over the slips but failing to connect.
So it was back to Boland vs Konstas. Everyone waited in anticipation of what would happen. Boland went fuller, Konstas moved across his stumps to play effectively a sweep shot, missed and was bowled. A season that has become dominated with debate around the 19-year-old’s approach had another installment.
“I think it [the reverse ramp] is a shot he practices a lot and he plays it pretty well in short-form cricket,” Jaques said. “He’s seen a bit of a window and an opportunity when the ball is new and hard to take a bowler off his length and make a field change.
“But you’re seeing him play it all the time now and he’s getting out doing it, and losing that consistency of run-scoring that we’ve seen from Sam over a long period of time batting normally, batting patient… this kid makes hundreds and historically he hasn’t made them by scooping and slogging. It’s almost like he’s been a bit caught up in it all.”
“If he wants to be that player who dominates them [the bowlers] and gets rid of an opening bowler in their most threatening time, and he’s happy to have dismissals like today, then carry on. But if you are looking to be a consistent Test batsman who averages 50 the don’t know you can do that playing the way he is at the minute.”
“Looking from outside and seeing Sam play a lot over the last few years…it’s such a different method that we’ve seen for years and years in Test and first-class cricket, he’s playing a different way, but it’s also a different way to how he got to where he got to so it’s a left of centre idea. He might prove everyone wrong. He might be consistent doing what he’s doing, scoring at a rate that no one has ever done, but it just seems high risk.”
2.1 overs, 30 for 1, and everyone took a deep breath.
