The first session of day 5 saw some heated exchange taking place between Ishant Sharma and Australian batsmen. Ishant was looking furious, trying to distract the batsman from focusing on the match. Smith, on one occasion, replied to Ishant’s sledge and then simply smiled to reflect that it did not bother him.
On the next ball, Ishant bowled a perfect delivery, pitching on a good length to Matt Renshaw. The left-handed batsman came forward to defend but the ball rose from the good length and hit Renshaw in the helmet. Interestingly, the ball entered the helmet and got stuck between his face and the helmet grill. Renshaw smiled as Ishant gave him a stern look.
Here is the video:
Ishant had been giving him such looks since last few overs and this was roaming around Renshaw’s mind. In the next over, Ishant again bowled on the good length and the ball did not rise and it hit his pads. The whole team appealed in unison and umpire Ian Gould did not take much time to raise his finger.
Renshaw looked in disgust with himself for having not played the ball to its merit. But it was too late to regret the mistake. Smith went up to him to ask if the bat was involved. However, Renshaw knew that there was no use of taking the DRS. He started walking back to the dressing room, still regretting the shot. Ishant, on the other hand, was jumping in jubilation for having won the battle of mind games.
