Australia PM XI vs South Africa: George Bailey's unusual stance leaves everyone in splits

South Africa have embarked on their short tour to Australia which comprises of three ODIs and a solitary T20I. Before the start of the series, they are currently playing a One-Day warm-up game against Australia Prime Minister’s XI led by George Bailey. While the practice match doesn’t generate much of an interest usually, Bailey’s weird batting stance has left everyone perplexed.

Generally, the batsman takes a middle-stump or leg-stump guard with both his legs in the same line. But Bailey, while batting in the game could be seen planting his front-foot at the middle-stump and back-foot diagonally away. He is standing very awkwardly with his unusual stance pointing towards the cover fielder even as his face is towards the slips. Though as the bowler gets into his stride, he aligns himself properly and plays a shot without much fuss.

Having said that, everyone watching the match were left in splits the way he is batting. Even the South African captain Faf du Plessis, fielding at slips, was smiling looking at George Bailey. The commentators including the former Aussie skipper Michael Clarke also had a laugh. Speaking about the same, Bailey had previously said that he opted for such a stance to tackle the swinging ball.

Here’s the video:

Match status

As far as the match is concerned, the visitors, after opting to bat first, were bundled out for 173 runs in 42 overs. Aiden Markram and David Miller only looked comfortable in the middle as Jason Behrendorff and Usman Qadir shared six wickets between them. In response, the PM’s XI have lost five wickets with Bailey still batting in the middle along with Jason Sangha.

The visitors have used four bowlers so far and each one of them has looked incisive in their opening spells. The match is likely to go down the wire in Canberra and it will be interesting to see which team will be able to hold its nerve.

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