Pakistan star Abdullah Shafique left his team with its heart in its mouth after taking out Aamer Jamal in a wild moment at the SCG.
The fielder has left his team a laughing stock with the “Keystone Cops” act leaving commentators, including Mark Waugh and Wasim Akram, perplexed.
While Pakistan had just breathed life into the Third Test with the wickets of Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne, the Tourists were once again under fire after another ugly moment in the field.
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The moment came when Travis Head flicked the ball deep towards fine leg, leaving Shafique to chase. While he ran after the ball, Aamer came around from deep fine leg and the pair clashed in dramatic fashion.
Shafique went in hard with a feet first, studs-up dive and slid heavily into his all-rounder teammate’s right ankle.
Jamal hit the turf and performed a double roll like any football prima donna would after contact in the penalty area.
It was a scary moment before he was able to get back to his feet and remained on the field as play resumed.
“There’s another calamity in the field,” Channel 7’s Tim Lane said.
Aussie cricket great Waugh said on Fox Cricket it could have easily been worse.
“What’s going on there? That was ridiculous,” he said.
“Well they’re 400km from each other. How did this happen?
“Studs up. He’s sent off. That’s a red card. What on earth? That’s a big red card. No yellow.”
Pakistan legend Akram couldn’t believe the pair hadn’t communicated with each other.
“Oh no. At this level they should be calling to each other,” he said on Fox Cricket.
“They should be saying, ‘It’s mine. It’s mine’. What was the need of the dive? What’s the point of saying sorry now. Do it before.”
He went on to say: “What was he thinking?”
Jamal even saw the funny side and in mocking-fashion pretended to flash a card to his teammate in the next session of play.
It didn’t derail Pakistan’s day and the Tourists were right back in the hunt when Head fell LBW to Jamal, leaving the home side 5/205.