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- Published: June 24, 2022 17:45
New Delhi: In the third test between England and New Zealand, Henry Nicholls got out in a bizarre-looking manner. The English cricket team surely shares a great relationship with deflections, first, the sixer deflected by Stokes’ bat in the World Cup 2019 finals and now a wicket off a deflection.
Jack Leach was bowling the 56th over on Day 1 when Henry Nicholls played a drive, the ball went to the non-striker Daryl Mitchell’s bat and deflected towards mid-off. Alex Lees, the fielder there, caught and hence Nicholls was given out. Leach could not understand what just happened and the umpire Richard Kettleborough was trying to cover himself to safety when Lees took the catch. The final ball before the tea break led to what everyone is saying to be a bizarre dismissal.
What on earth!? ??
Scorecard/clips: https://t.co/AIVHwaRwQv
??????? #ENGvNZ ?? pic.twitter.com/yb41LrnDr9
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) June 23, 2022
But, this was not the first time a batter was dismissed by a deflection. Sir Alastair Cook rightly pointed out that Andrew Symonds was also caught via a deflection off Michael Clarke’s bat in an ODI between Australia and Sri Lanka in 2006.
“Never seen anything like it,” Leach said in the post-match press conference. “It was very lucky for me, very unlucky for Nicholls. I don’t like those wickets really. I like it because it says two wickets on the board. But you have to take it. It’s not going to be something that I’m going to re-watch many times,” Jach Leach added.
At the end of day 1, the visitors were at a score of 225 for 5. Jack Leach bowled 30 of the 90 overs on day 1 and ended up with 2 wickets for 75 runs. Though on Day 2 Daryl Mitchell has stabilised the innings for New Zealand by scoring another century.