Broad up to his old tricks and he doesn’t know it
Stuart BrOaD is not one to be so unobservant but he was oblivious yesterday after becoming the first Englishman to take two test hat-tricks.
Only when the man on the tannoy announced the feat at the end of an over where Broad had struck with his first two balls did any of the England team and, seemingly, the entire Yorkshire crowd realise that he had also taken the key wicket of Kumar Sangakkara with the last ball of his previous over.
Cue a subdued reaction from a bowler who had earned the acclaim of his home crowd at trent Bridge when he took his first hat-trick against India three years ago and had also been on the receiving end of Peter Siddle’s hat-trick ball at Brisbane a few months earlier. He is the first bowler to claim one at Headingley for 57 years
It was that sort of day at this famous old ground where it is best to expect the unexpected and where the cricket and the crowd rarely fail to entertain, as both did again at the start of this decisive second Investec test.
this was a day of extremes, from Broad’s hat-trick and Liam Plunkett’s first five-wicket haul in test cricket as Sri Lanka were hustled out for 257 to a catalogue of English fielding errors and two naïve self-inflicted blows.
there was even the surreal sight, late in the day, of play being stopped when Sri Lankan f i e l der Shaminda Eranga appeared to be struck by a piece of cheese thrown by a spectator on the notoriously rowdy Western terrace.
alastair Cook would have been happy to take all 10 wickets so quickly when he put Sri Lanka in under l eaden skies but the England captain would also have been frustrated that his opponents were not dismissed for significantly fewer.
Missed chances are one thing — and England squandered six of them yesterday — but there was also a turned down lbw that was shown by technology to be out that Broad failed to review and, remarkably, an edged catch by Sangakkara to wicketkeeper Matt Prior that no one appealed for.
at the end of it, the openers who both badly need a score for different reasons — Cook and Sam robson — negotiated 15 overs to leave England in a position f rom where they should be able to dominate, even though rangana Herath showed that he may well be a threat today with one or two that turned.
Yorkshireman Plunkett took five wickets but his tally could so easily have been even better as he twice should have claimed a batsman in Sangakkara, who rode his luck to record his sixth successive score of 50 or more, one short of the test record.
One of the greatest of all batsmen should have been run out before he had scored, was shown to have edged a ball from Plunkett that England completely missed, saw Prior f umble a chance that hit his chest rather than gloves and then cut Chris Jordan to a diving Moeen ali, who could not hold on at point.
Finally Ian Bell, in his 100th test, claimed a sharp catch to send Sangakkara on his way.
that was the first of four wickets to fall in nine balls after tea as any hopes Sri Lanka had of embarrassing Cook with a big score evaporated and t he tourists then failed to make any inroads when England batted.
Cook and his team have the chance today to bat Sri Lanka out of this game and the series.