- Marnus Labuschagne was dismissed by delivery after change
- ‘I’ve seen Nathan Lyon do it … It worked out pretty magically’
As match-changing moments go, it was as unusual as it was effective: with Australia 91 for one and England struggling to make a breakthrough Stuart Broad strolled to the stumps and flipped the bails around before replacing them in their grooves. Marnus Labuschagne edged the very next delivery, Joe Root took a wonderful catch at slip and a couple of hours later it was 185 for seven. Australia recovered from there to post a total of 295, putting them 12 ahead of England at the halfway stage.
“I’ve heard it’s an Aussie change of luck thing,” Broad explained. “I’ve seen Nathan Lyon do it. We had a few play and misses in the morning session and we needed to make a breakthrough and I thought: ‘I’ll have a little change of the bails.’ It just worked out pretty magically that he nicked the next ball and Rooty took a great catch. I randomly went and celebrated with Uzzy [Usman Khawaja] for some reason. He said: ‘If you touch my bails I’m flipping them straight back.’ So he gave me an immediate warning.”
