England’s Jack Leach on Thursday was left reflecting on a “silly game” after capturing the wicket of Henry Nicholls in bizarre fashion on the opening day of the third Test against New Zealand at Headingley.
The left-arm spinner’s career has been blighted by illness, injury, inconsistent selection and even a concussion suffered while chasing the ball to the boundary in the first Test of the three-match series at Lord’s in London.
So he was arguably due a moment of good fortune and it arrived a day after his 31st birthday.
Photo: Reuters
Nicholls, on the stroke of tea, drove hard at Leach only for the ball to ricochet off non-striker Daryl Mitchell’s bat and loop gently to Alex Lees at mid-off.
“It was unbelievable, I’ve never seen anything like it,” Leach told reporters. “I didn’t even know if that was allowed, but I’ll take any wicket I can get. You get enough that don’t go your way. It was very unlucky for Nicholls, but very lucky for me.”
If that was a bonus wicket, there was no denying the skill with which Leach had struck with his first ball of the day to have Will Young trapped leg before wicket with a delivery that turned and straightened.
Leach, considering the contrast between his wickets in an economical return of 2-75 in 30 overs, said: “It’s a silly game isn’t it?”
“That’s what it made me think, it’s a stupid game we play. I like it because it says two wickets up on the board, but I don’t like the dismissal,” he added.
New Zealand batting coach Luke Ronchi accepted Leach’s luck in sporting fashion, but suggested Nicholls might have felt differently about an extraordinary end to a grafting innings of 19 off 99 balls.
“I like those sort of things that happen, you can always say you were there at the time and if you take those factors out of the game it could make things pretty boring,” Ronchi said. “Unfortunately for Henry, it’s his demise. We gave him a bit of space afterwards.”
England, already 2-0 up against New Zealand and looking to complete a series clean sweep, took three wickets before lunch after losing the toss in seemingly ideal batting conditions, with Stuart Broad striking twice in the absence of injured spearhead and longtime new-ball partner James Anderson.
However, the Black Caps, a year to the day since they defeated India in the inaugural World Test Championship final in Southampton, England, recovered to 225-5 at stumps thanks to an unbroken stand of 102 between the in-form Mitchell and Tom Blundell.
Their third century stand of the series followed alliances worth 195 at Lord’s and 236 at Trent Bridge in Nottingham.
Mitchell yesterday claimed his third century of the series before he was caught by Ben Stokes off the bowling of Leach just before lunch for 109.
New Zealand were 325-8 at lunch.
Badminton world No. 3 Anders Antonsen clinched his first Indonesia Open title yesterday after beating Taiwan’s Chou Tien-chen, while South Korea’s An Se-young won her second championship in Jakarta. The 28-year-old Dane sank world No. 7 Chou at the Indonesian capital’s Istora Senayan arena, winning 22-20, 21-14 in a 60-minute match to secure the prestigious Super 1000 event. Antonsen came out on top in a tightly contested first game before cruising to victory in the second. In a more closely fought women’s singles final, South Korean ace and world No. 1 An fought back from one game down to beat China’s
‘STILL’: In front of a packed New Jersey arena attended by Donald Trump and Mike Tyson, UFC 316 delivered high drama as Merab Dvalishvili retained his title Georgia’s Merab Dvalishvili scored a second-round submission win over Sean O’Malley to retain his bantamweight title at Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) 316 on Saturday, with Kayla Harrison also winning by submission in the co-main event, tapping out Juliana Pena to claim the women’s bantamweight crown. In front of a packed crowd at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, which included US President Donald Trump and retired heavyweight great Mike Tyson, Dvalishvili, a 34-year-old from the country of Georgia, won the belt in a convincing, although not aesthetically pleasing, unanimous decision. Dvalishvili (19-4) sat on top of the cage and shouted
Manchester City on Monday completed the signing of left-back Rayan Ait-Nouri from Wolverhampton Wanderers for a reported ￡31 million (US$41.8 million). The 24-year-old Algeria international has signed a five-year contract and will be available for the FIFA Club World Cup, which begins later this week. Ait-Nouri is expected to be just one of a trio of new City faces for that tournament with deals close to completion for AC Milan midfielder Tijjani Reijnders and Olympique Lyonnais playmaker Rayan Cherki. After missing out on a major trophy in the recently completed season for the first time since 2016-2017, City are hoping
Hulking Italian sprinter Jonathan Milan on Monday surged away from the pack to win the second stage of the Criterium de Dauphine in Issoire, France, to take the overall lead from Tadej Pogacar. The 1.93m, 87kg Milan had to battle to keep up on a hilly 204.6km run through central France from Premilhat. When the pack hit the home straight, he rocketed away from his rivals to collect a 10-second victory bonus and the yellow jersey. “That was really tough,” Milan said. “I was dropped at one point, and I was really on the limit, but I have to say
RSS