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6 Off 9 Balls! Travis Head Flops Yet Again As Horror South Africa Series Continues

Anurag Dasgupta

Head fails again [Source: AFP Photo] Head fails again [Source: AFP Photo]

Travis Head was Australia's star batter in the West Indies series, but fast-forward a couple of weeks, and the opening batter is struggling to score a single fifty. Throughout the ongoing South Africa series, the southpaw has struggled for runs, and the trend continued in the second ODI in Mackay.

Head flops for fifth successive time

Having lost the opener in a one-sided battle, Australia needed a win in the second game to level the series. South Africa posted 277, batting first, and Head was expected to take the charge as the home side aimed to win the contest. However, disaster struck as he departed for just 6 off 9 balls. 

The opening batter is slightly vulnerable against short-pitched balls, and Nandre Burger delivered a short of a length delivery as Head miscued his attempted pull shot. The ball took a top-edge, and Aiden Markram at mid-on took a simple catch. This was his fifth successive failure, having not done much in the T20Is as well.

In the T20I series against the same team, Head was expected to deliver the goods, but he couldn't do much, and added only 26 runs in three matches, with scores of 2, 5, 19.

Despite Head not being at his best, the Australian team captured the T20I series, 2-1.

Why Head has struggled against South Africa?

As mentioned, the Australian batter has a slight weakness when it comes to short deliveries, and the Proteas bowlers have tried to exploit him using that. The batter loves width on offer, and if most if his dismissals from the series are replayed, one can observe that Head has not been given the room to free his arms, and often the batter has played a reckless shot to get dismissed.