The much anticipated Ashes 2023 series commenced at the Edgbaston in Birmingham on Friday (June 16), with England winning the toss and deciding to bat first against Australia in the opening game.
Although the English team lost one of their openers with just 22 runs on the board, Zak Crawley gave them a rocket start and smashed a brilliant half-century. The right-handed batter scored impressive 61 runs off 73 deliveries. However, he later fell victim to Scott Boland just before the lunch.
After the departure of Crawley, Harry Brook and Joe Root took charge and made Aussie bowlers toil hard for the next wicket. The pair of Root and Brook webbed a crucial 51-run partnership for their team. But unfortunately Brook was dismissed in a bizarre fashion off a delivery from Nathan Lyon that perplexed everyone on and off the field.
It all happened in the second ball of the 38th over when Lyon bowled a short of length delivery to Brook, which gained some extra bounce and lobbed up off the thigh pad of the English batter. The wicketkeeper, the fielder positioned at short leg, and even Brook himself had no clue where the ball was headed until it finally went on to crash into the stumps. While Aussie players celebrated the wicket in amazement, the 24-year-old was baffled by the manner in which he got out.
The Australian legend Ricky Ponting in the commentary box was also left surprised by the bizarre dismissal of Brook as he was quoted saying, “I’ve seen many types of dismissals, nothing like this,” on air.
Here’s the video:
A freak dismissal.
Live clips/Scorecard: https://t.co/TZMO0eJDwY pic.twitter.com/cIUQaANJ2x
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) June 16, 2023
It is worth mentioning that Brook earlier got a lifeline as well, with Travis Head dropping him on 24. Nevertheless, he failed to use the opportunity to his advantage and went back to the pavilion after adding just eight more runs to that score.
