Harry Brook suffered a ‘freak dismissal’ against Australia in first Test of Ashes 2023 (Twitter Image)
Harry Brook suffered a ‘freak dismissal’ Ricky Ponting felt the England batter was ‘unlucky’ after he lost his wicket while batting at 32 on Day 1 of first Test between England and Australia
England batsman Harry Brook was unlucky as he was dismissed in the most bizarre fashion against Australia in the first Test of the Ashes 2023 at Edgbaston on Day 1. Brook was batting at 32 when the ball took a nick off his bat, struck his body and deflected into the stumps, rattling the bails.
To make the dismissal even more ‘freak’, the Australian players all went for the catch after Brook nicked the ball but none of them could get anywhere close to it, losing sight of the ball as it moved back and rattled the stumps.
The incident took place on the second ball of the 38th over of England’s inning, Brook had stitched together a 50-run stand with Joe Root and looked to take the hosts past the 200-run mark when disaster struck.
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Facing Nathan Lyon, Brook was delivered a straightish ball, he tried to play a shot towards the leg side but the ball took a nick off his bat, Australian keeper Alex Carey went for the catch but lost sight of the ball completely as it took a deflection from the batter and went on to rattle the stumps.
Commentating on the dismissal former Australian captain Ricky Ponting said, “Desperately unlucky. I have seen many modes of dismissals but not one like that.”
Meanwhile, England captain Ben Stokes opted to bat first having won the toss, but his side lost opener Ben Duckett early after he managed to score just 12 runs in 10 balls.
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Ollie Pope and Zak Crawley stitched together a 71-run stand for the second wicket before Lyon trapped Pope plumb in front of the stumps. Then, Scott Boland, who picked in the Australian side ahead of Mitchell Starc proved Pat Cummins made the right choice as he removed the dangerous-looking Crawley on 61.
England ended the first session on 124/3 having started the play well but losing their way towards Lunch as Australia roared back into the contest.