Stuart Broad's 'obscene' final act in fairytale finish to Test cricket career

Stuart Broad saved his best trick for (second) last as he claimed the final two wickets of England's victory in the fifth Ashes Test in the final match of his career. With Alex Carey and Todd Murphy combining to frustrate England with a 35-run ninth-wicket partnership late on the final day at The Oval, Broad pulled a trick out of his bag that we'd seen just days before.

Just like he did when he appeared to break Marnus Labuschagne's concentration in the first innings, Broad decided to take off the bails at the non-striker's end and switch them around. The veteran bowler had beaten Murphy's outside edge on a number of occassions and decided to try the bail trick in an attempt to change his luck.

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In extraordinary scenes, Broad dismissed Murphy with the very next ball after an outside edge to keeper Jonny Bairstow. The Englishman appeared to be in disbelief that the cheeky ploy had come off, sparking wild scenes of celebration with teammates.

Broad said "the bails" as teammate Joe Root recognised what he'd done, before he walked over and gave them a tap as if to say thank you. The remarkable moment went viral on social media, with cricket journalist Vithushan Ehantharajah tweeting: “You all saw Broad swap the bails at the non-striker’s end before that delivery, right? Obscene."

Speaking after play Broad said: “If I’d learned that 10 years ago I would have been all right, wouldn’t I? The Marnus one made me smile in the first innings and I had a couple of near misses today that started to get a little bit frustrating. So I thought I'd change the bails at the bowling end and see what happens - and Todd nicked what was a decent ball next ball."

Murphy's dismissal was closely followed by Carey's downfall, with the Aussie keeper also nicking a Broad delivery through to Bairstow. Carey and Murphy's partnership gave the Aussies a glimmer of hope after horror collapses of 4-11 and 5-30 derailed their attempts to chase down a record target of 384.

Australia appeared to be cruising when they got within 120 runs with seven wickets in hand, but Mooen Ali swung the match in England's favour with four wickets. Carey then got his side to within 49 runs of victory, but the Aussies fell agonisingly short of claiming their first Ashes series win on English soil since 2001. It instead finished in a 2-2 draw, with Australia retaining the urn for the fourth-consecutive series.

Stuart Broad gets fairytale farewell to cricket

"You wonder what your last ball will be," Broad said afterwards, "so to take a wicket to win an Ashes Test match is pretty cool."

Skipper Ben Stokes admitted: "When we got them eight down it would have taken an almighty train wreck if we didn't win the game. I thought I chose my moment quite well to bring Broady back into the attack.

"Two left-handers ... you've seen the way he bowls at them. That was just his moment. In terms of his longevity, what he's achieved. He's an inspiration. To play 160 Test matches is not easy to do as a bowler. He's been incredible."

The match also marked the second farewell for Moeen after the spinning all-rounder came out of retirement to play in the Ashes. Moeen answered an SOS from Stokes when first-choice spinner Jack Leach suffered a back injury that ruled him out of the entire series.

"I know I'm done. If Stokesy messages me again, I am going to delete it," he said. Stokes responded: "I won't waste my time on that then."

with AAP

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