MELBOURNE: Shane Watson’s pads have never tired of planting themselves between ball and stumps but on Monday in Cardiff their failure to do so deliver the ultimate punch-line at the Australian’s expense.

Dumped from the Test side after a pair of trademark lbw dismissals in the first Ashes clash, Watson had hoped for a decent score on his return to the Welsh capital for a one-off Twenty20 match against hosts England.

Instead, the hapless all-rounder trudged darkly back to the dressing room with eight runs after one of the most comical dismissals of his 10-year international career.

Watson played back to a delivery from bowler Steven Finn but watched in alarm as the ball trickled towards the stumps.

His attempt to kick it away connected with only fresh air, leaving a rueful Watson to watch it gently knock off a bail.

Dismissed lbw nearly 30 times in Tests, Watson has rarely had any trouble getting his pads in the way, so the irony of his dismissal raised chuckles around the ground, not least the English coaching team who heartily enjoyed it from the balcony.

“It was a little bit unlucky, wasn’t it?” Australia captain Steve Smith, the non-striker at the time, smiled to reporters. “I guess that’s just the game of cricket though. It was a tough one for him and we had to rebuild after that.”

Published in Dawn, September 2nd, 2015

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