There was no public apology from Shane Warne, but the leg-spin great adopted a more conciliatory tone towards Marnus Labuschagne after his and Andrew Symonds' foul-mouthed gaffe ridiculing Australia's batting star mistakenly went to air on Friday night.
A day after being ripped into by Warne and Symonds for his eccentric mannerisms at the crease, Labuschagne let his actions do the talking on the field, playing a starring role as Australia seized control of the third Test at the SCG.
Test batsman Marnus Labuschagne was mocked for his eccentric mannerisms by Shane Warne and Andrew Symonds.Credit:Getty
"Do something now to his ADD [attention deficit disorder], f—ing pills," Symonds said.
"Yeah, f—," Warne responded. "Jeez it's annoying. 'No!!!' Just f—ing bat properly," Warne said, referring to Labuschagne's unorthodox behaviour while batting. Superstar batsman Steve Smith has similar quirks but was not targeted.
Symonds then suggested "we'll have to give him the hog pile" – a term that refers to a group of people jumping on top of a person. There is, however, conjecture as to whether he was referring instead to former national teammate and noted "pest" Brad Hogg, who was piled on as a joke to pull him into line.
"Mate, if you keep that shit up we're going to have to squash your guts out your arse," Symonds says, drawing a laugh from Warne.
Warne, however, was on Saturday more complimentary towards the Queenslander, who caught Jasprit Bumrah short of his ground with a brilliant direct hit and also played a role in effecting another run out.
"That was just sensational stuff," Warne said. "To slide, pick it up, turn around and go bang was just brilliant. Absolutely sensational."
Warne also praised Labuschagne after he got his hand to an extremely difficult opportunity in close to the bat.
"He did so well just to get a hand on it," Warne said. "He's a couple of metres from the bat and hit it well. Reaction is about 0.2 second probably."
Kayo Sports, a subsidiary of Foxtel, issued an apology on Twitter.
"Our stream started early and caught some unacceptable comments," the streaming service tweeted. "On behalf of @kayosports and the commentary team, we unreservedly apologise."
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