Watch: Never-seen-before 'Brumbrella' tactic of Stokes to dismiss Khawaja in 1st Ashes tie leaves ENG legends baffled
After a dizzying passage of play in the morning session, Stokes pulled off a never-seen-before field trap to dismiss Khawaja a move that left legends baffled.
Only one batter stood between England and a first-innings lead in the first Test match of the 2023 Ashes series in Birmingham. Being the second batter to score a century in the match after Joe Root and the only for Australia, Khawaja's valiant 321 ball-knock of 141 runs, the second-highest score by an Australia opener in England in this century, helped the visitors fight back and narrow the gap in the first innings. Hence, it only required a masterful stroke to get rid of the batter. And after a dizzying passage of play in the morning session on Day 3 of the match, Stokes pulled off a never-seen-before field trap to dismiss Khawaja a move that left England legends baffled.
England had dismissed Alex Carey early on, leaving Khawaja the only batting hope for Australia as the tail-end was exposed. Australia were closing in and England desperately needed that one wicket before lunch to maintain the lead in the game. Before Ollie Robinson came in to bowl his third delivery in the 113th over, Stokes seemed to have made a million changes on the field, setting up a "Brumbella".
The England skipper lined up Ollie Pope, Harry Brook and James Anderson as three catching covers while Joe Root, Stuart Broad and Stokes himself mirrored them on the off side as three catching mid-wicket fielders, thereby creating a reverse umbrella field set-up.
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The tactic left Kevin Pietersen, who was in the commentary box, absolutely baffled. “Have you ever seen a field like that?” he laughed on Sky Sports. “I haven’t.”
But there was a reason behind the madness.
Khawaja fell for the trap when he charged down the track to take on the yorker from Robinson, hoping to play it square on the offside, but failed to make contact. He missed the yorker in the previous ball as well, but this time, it was right on target and England got the much-needed breakthrough.
“The plan has worked,” former England captain Eoin Morgan said in commentary. “Excellent captaincy from Ben Stokes … making something happen when there’s nothing happening in the game. Brilliant from Stokes.”
The dismissal sparked a tail-end collapse as Robinson dismissed Nathan Lyon and Pat Cummins while Stuart Broad got Scott Boland out for a duck as Australia finished with 386 runs, falling short of England's first-innings total by seven runs.
