Stuart Broad discusses the bail flip strategy. “I’ve heard, and I might have made this up, that it’s an Aussie change-of-luck thing, and I think I’ve seen Nathan Lyon do it,” Broad said.
Stuart Broad’s astute sportsmanship inject a bit of drama to the ongoing Ashes series on the second day of the fifth and final Ashes Test at the Oval. The veteran pacer manage to disturb important batter Marnus Labuschagne by altering the bails on his stumps to end his 81-ball vigil.
Immediately following Broad’s deft move, Mark Wood struck a magnificent delivery. England’s former captain, Joe Root, took a brilliant one-handed catch at first slip to dismiss the struggling Labuschagne. This breakthrough assisted England in limiting Australia to 295 points.
According to Broad, the idea of altering the bails as a superstitious ritual to change the luck appears to be an Australian tradition. He described how he had seen Nathan Lyon, an Australian cricketer, use this strategy in the past.
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We needed a breakthrough, so I thought I’d try a different approach: Stuart Broad
“I’ve heard, and I might have made this up, that it’s an Aussie change-of-luck thing. I think I’ve seen Nathan Lyon do it. But we had a few play-and-misses in the morning session. We needed to make a breakthrough and I thought I’d have a little change of the bails. It work out pretty magically that Marnus nicked off next ball and Rooty took a great catch. ” Broad said as quoted by Mirror.co.uk
Broad even joked that during his celebration with non-striker Usman Khawaja. The latter jokingly advised him not to touch his bails, lest he suddenly switch them back.
“For some reason, I went and celebrated with Uzzy (non-striker Usman Khawaja), and he said, ‘If you touch my bails, I’m flipping them straight back,’ so he gave me an immediate warning,” Broad explained.
Meanwhile, the final Ashes Test is proving to be an enthralling show of skill, tactics, and superstitions, with Broad’s inventive sportsmanship providing a novel twist to the age-old rivalry.
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