Posted by Liam Livingstone’s England debut was pretty spectacular. He didn’t just fail to display his talent to a wider audience, he actively concealed it.
He dropped a catch; mishit everything, including the one boundary that he hit; bust his bat; and then got run out. He also found time to enrage Chris Morris beyond all human comprehension.
We were therefore rather excited to see what he’d deliver in his second match.
Liam Livingstone didn’t disappoint.
Unless you wanted to see runs, in which case he fully disappointed.
Ducks don’t come much more golden than this one.
As you can see, Dane Paterson hasn’t even released the ball yet and Livingstone’s right foot is already making preparations for his dismissal.
By this point, we start to get a feel for what’s happening. Could be aiming for an LBW. Could be looking to get caught at fine leg.
But now things start to crystallise. This is a very strong stance from which to be bowled for a golden duck.
Class.
Arguably, he came closer to hitting his airborne bails than the ball.
Then, after he realised what had happened, Livingstone briefly tried to style it out by pretending that someone had speared him in the chest with the handle of his own cricket bat.
If you’re going to get clean bowled, do it with a bit of panache.
We think you’ll agree this was a quite magnificent first-baller and we can’t wait for Livingstone’s next international outing.
Similar deliveries:
Best of the blobs: Eight of Test cricket’s finest duck-makers
Why Liam Livingstone’s huge six v Pakistan was just about the most satisfying shot ever played and also why it was not
Why South Africa couldn’t possibly have come up with a more appropriate end to their tour of India than Lungi Ngidi’s bizarre golden duck
A hover-over novella – top captioning KC.
I have discovered that I have sunburned my scalp – a combination of unusually bright British weather and the thinning of my hair. Since there’s still enough hair up there I can’t actually rub the sun lotion in, I am going to have to invest in a hat. Andy Caddick did a good line in hats. Jack Russell’s hat also looked very comfortable, but I’m not sure the brim extended far enough to provide good all-round sun protection. But I have to say this umpire’s hat in the first few frames looks very fetching. Judging from the shadows it seems to be providing that vital back-of-the-neck shading too. Wonder who the ICC’s official supplier of hats is.
There is only one hat and it is the Richie Richardson hat.
Other than a brutal, innovative century or 28 off 14, say, golden duck is basically the perfect T20 innings. If you know you’re out of form and would otherwise scratch around ineffectively and eat up 10 balls making a painstaking 6, don’t; get out of there as quickly as possible and let someone else get on with the marmalising. Liam Livingstone is already shaping up to be one of the best we’ve ever had in the middle order.
Also: how is Dawid pronounced? And Malan, for that matter? It seems like the time to learn.
Liam Livingstone’s T20 average – not just international matches – is currently 18.18. Stripping out his two matches for England, his domestic T20 average is 19.2. Shows how we need a complete overhaul of cricket stats (or at least our interpretation of them) for this format, but it does make me wonder – how much worse would things be if we promoted a bowler with a decent eye and musculuar swipe, let’s say someone who’s down at number 9 or so normally, with very strict “six or out, but if you get a four we’ll take it” instructions. I suspect the answer is “worse, actually” but it would be interesting to see how much worse. At least they wouldn’t overvalue their wicket, which is a trait many batsmen fall down on but Double-L can’t be accused of.
Do averages mean anything in T20? I’ve noticed they seem to stick to strike rate now, which does make more sense in this kind of game. Maybe back in my playing days, when a 25-over match would frequently see both sides make less than 90, but certainly not now, when even a run a ball is considered slacking.
Channelling his inner Afridi there.
I was there, and just before he came in to bat I was loudly praising his form for Lancs and his future prospects.
Almost as disappointing as the fact that despite there being 4 different types of cider on offer, there was only one non-Fosters beer.
What was it?
…John Smiths.
Jesus. Creamflow?
I don’t think so.
Tiny Rebel bar in Cardiff had many many options though, so it wasn’t a bad beer day overall.
As long as you managed to make up the shortfall somewhere.
Brilliant freeze-frame cluster duck
Good work. Wish we’d used that when we tweeted the story earlier.
On another matter, the day night County commentators are in a right pickle about what to call
lunch/tea/supper/dinner/nosebag/
prandials/drinks/sun-downers. It’s done their heads in.
Daisy’s cruel but fair comment after witnessing the LL clusterduck on TV:
“Who the hell was he?”
Harsh use if the past tense.