During a T20 match at the ICC Academy Dubai invitational T20 tournament last week between the physical disabilities (PD) teams of England and Pakistan, cricketer Liam Thomas showed everyone that having an artificial leg is not a barrier between him and the game.
When the ball was traveling to the boundary ropes after a Pakistani player hit it towards deep backward square, Thomas showed great dedication and made a diving effort to stop the ball. As soon as he made the heroic effort, his artificial leg got unstrapped, but it hardly made a difference. He steadily moved towards the ball with one leg and threw the ball back to the 22-yards, and later went on to fetch his artificial limb.
Thomas’ inspirational effort ultimately went in vain as England lost the final match by three wickets. The cricketer showcased his batting skills earlier in a match against Bangladesh where he guided the European team to a win.
After the match, Thomas said to ecb.co.uk, “We got off to a good start and then let them back into the game with a few wickets in the middle overs. We had a reasonable finish and thought that 137 was competitive. It’s not easy batting on such a big pitch – there was a much lower boundary count today.”
"Pakistan got off to a flyer. It got to the point where they only needed 50 but we kept tugging them back and made them work very hard for the win," he added.
The England captain also heaped praise on his teammate on social media, saying that the effort was ‘great’.
Pakistani journalist Saj Sadiq also lauded the Englishman’s effort during the match.
Thomas feels that the PD team players have to push themselves in the park and play a competitive and exciting brand of cricket, just as the men’s team does. He said, "We want to get out there and push ourselves. We’ve seen the men’s team play a really exciting brand of cricket and we want to follow that. This tournament has been a fantastic advert for disability cricket. All three sides have improved considerably."
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