Credit: Twitter
Stuart Broad, who had announced his shock retirement from international cricket yesterday, went on to hit a six on the final he faced in Tests. The 37-year-old scored a run-a-ball eight in his last innings for England, while staying not out, to help propel their second innings total to 395, setting up a daunting target of 384 runs for Australia to chase at The Oval in London.
At the start of play on day 4, Stuart Broad received a guard of honour from the Australian cricket team, and James Anderson, his fellow batting partner, with whom he took the field as a batter for the final time in international cricket. They managed to stitch together a 16-run partnership in the middle, before the 41-year-old, who is celebrating his birthday today, got out LBW to Todd Murphy.
Also Read: I started building my ‘warrior mode’: Stuart Broad on Yuvraj Singh's 6 sixes in 2007 T20 World Cup
Notably, the last ball of the 81st over, drugged into the pitch by Mitchell Starc, wasn’t high enough for the 6-foot-5-inch tall batter, who backed away and heaved it high over the square leg boundary for a massive six. As the ball sailed over the boundary, the fans at The Oval cheered for Stuart Broad, who was seen enjoying the moment with his non-striking partner James Anderson.
It led to a plethora of tweets from the Cricket Twitter community on the platform, who were sharing their adulation for the great man. Some of the best comments on Twitter for the last ball six from Stuart Broad are as under:
When the rains arrived at The Oval during the second session of play on day 4, Australia were 135/0 in just 38 overs, while chasing a 384-run target to win the Ashes series by a 3-1 margin. Usman Khawaja and David Warner have both gone past their fifties, staying not out on 69 and 58 runs respectively.