Mahli Beardman is yet to bowl a ball for Australia - and may be carrying the drinks for a while yet - after he got in the way of Marnus Labuschagne as the fielder desperately tried to save a boundary in the loss to England overnight. Labuschagne had to abort an attempt to leap over the boundary to stop a Liam Livingstone six because a seemingly unaware Beardman, drink bottle in hand as 12th man, was in his way. Labuschagne shot the teenager a death stare for the ages after the embarrassing incident as the ball dropped only a metre over the rope giving Labuschagne some chance of getting to it.
“He sure was. He was just walking around. He’d have been in the line of sight as Labuschagne was going around,” England cricket great Nasser Hussain said on the Sky Sports coverage.
“Labushagne has a look at him as if to say, ‘Mate, there’s a game going on here’. “Well he gives him the stare and I can sort of understand why. I can completely understand why.
” Beardman, the 19-year-old West Australian bowling prodigy discovered by Dennis Lillee, was rushed over to England with the Aussie bowling attack racked by illness despite having only played one first class game for WA last November. It was a disappointing evening for the Australians whose 14-match one-day winning streak - dating back to their World Cup win last year - was ended by England’s 46-run win. The Poms kept their chances alive in the five-match series by winning the third game after Australia steamrolled .
