[Watch] Matt Renshaw reaches half-century with 7 runs during warm-up match against Pakistan!

Prime Minister’s XI batter Matt Renshaw reached his half-century in a rather unique manner on Day 3 of the warm-up match against Pakistan at the Manuka Oval in Canberra on Friday, December 8. Seven runs were added to his score as he went from 47 to 54!

In the 78th over of Prime Minister’s XI’s first innings, he drove a delivery from leg-spinner Abrar Ahmed through the off-side. The fielder, Mir Hamza, chased the ball and put in a sliding dive to stop the boundary, restricting the batters to three runs. The fielder, however, sent in a wayward throw, which Pakistan keeper Sarfaraz Ahmed failed to collect. The ball went past the keeper for a boundary and Renshaw ended up getting seven runs for his stroke.

The Prime Minister’s XI were 235/3 after 88 overs in their first innings, responding to Pakistan’s total of 391/9 declared. Prime Minister’s XI openers added 96 for the first wicket before Marcus Harris was dismissed by Abrar for 49 off 102 balls. Cameron Bancroft (53 off 128) was then trapped lbw by Khurram Shahzad.

Renshaw and Cameron Green (46 off 96) added 86 runs for the third wicket before the latter was caught behind off Faheem Ashraf. At the time of writing, Renshaw was batting on 67 and Prime Minister’s XI skipper Nathan McSweeney on 7.

Earlier, Pakistan put up a competitive 391/9 declared in their first innings after winning the toss and deciding to bat first. Skipper Shan Masood led from the front with an unbeaten 201 off 298 balls. Sarfaraz Ahmed scored a brisk 41 off 47, while Babar Azam (40 off 88) and Abdullah Shafique (38 off 76) also came up with decent contributions.

For the Prime Minister's XI, Jordan Buckingham starred with 5/80 from 23 overs, while Mark Steketee, Nathan McAndrew, and Todd Murphy picked up one wicket each.

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Matt Renshaw’s Test career

Speaking of Renshaw, he has been in and out of the Australian team for the last few years. Having made his debut in November 2016, the 27-year-old left-handed batter has 645 runs to his name in 14 Tests at an average of 29.31 with one hundred and three fifties.

He is an experienced batter at the first-class level, having scored 6609 runs in 106 matches at an average of 37.98. The southpaw has 20 hundreds and 19 fifties to his name in first-class cricket.