Marnus Labuschagne out of isolation with 2nd XI double century
Marnus Labuschagne emerged from isolation and cracked a massive double century with a record score for Glamorgan’s 2nd XI ahead of his final few weeks in county cricket.Labuschagne and his Queensland team-mate Michael Neser had been forced into ten days isolation having been deemed a close contact of Glamorgan batter Nick Selman who tested positive for Covid-19.The period did not expire soon enough for either to feature in the current County Championship match against Sussex, but Labuschagne found himself a spot for the seconds against Northamptonshire where he cracked 276 off 268 balls with 32 fours and four sixes – beating the previous Glamorgan 2nd XI record of 267 held by Ian Thomas from 2003. For good measure he had also taken three wickets in the first innings.
Labuschagne will have one more County Championship match against Northamptonshire next week and the final few games of Glamorgan’s T20 Blast campaign before returning home earlier that had previously been planned so that he can spend time with family ahead of the Australian season.He had been left out of Australia’s limited-overs squad for the tours of West Indies and Bangladesh with the decision initially based around the theory he was better off playing for Glamorgan than potentially carrying the drinks while there were also complications around travel arrangements.Before his enforced lay-off Labuschagne had been impressing in the T20 Blast where he remains Glamorgan’s leading run-scorer with 294 at 58.80 and a strike-rate of 137.38 alongside taking seven wickets.
The County Championship, where he was prolific during his previous spell with the club in 2019, has not been so fruitful this time with 151 runs in eight innings.Unless Labuschagne is a late inclusion in Australia’s T20 World Cup plans he will enter pre-season with Queensland before the start of the domestic summer in late September or early October. He could have five Sheffield Shield matches ahead of the opening Test of the season against Afghanistan in Hobart at the end of November.