Marnus Labuschagne is the boy who cried wolf.
So frequent and excitable are his appeals for wickets in the field, that umpires and his own teammates no longer pay much attention to him.
But the Aussies all owe Labuschagne a beer after he correctly advised captain Pat Cummins not to review a not-out call against Sri Lanka on day one of the first Test.
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It was the last over before lunch when leg-spinner Mitchell Swepson caught Angelo Mathews on the front pad and the Australian players went up in appeal.
It was given not-out but the Aussies were keen to review, and it was only Labuschagne yelling “I thought it hit glove” that encouraged Cummins to keep the review up his sleeve.
Initially it seemed Labuschagne had erred, when ball-tracking replays showed the delivery pitched in line of the stumps, hit the pad in line, and would have gone on to take the bails.
“It’s not often that happens, that Marnus doesn’t want to have a look upstairs,” commentator H D Ackerman said.
“That’s out if there’s no glove,” former Australian wicketkeeper Brad Haddin said.
But Labuschagne turned out to be a genius. As the players walked to lunch, hot-spot technology showed the ball did indeed touch the batter’s glove, rendering it a non-wicket.
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