England quick shifted the bails and with it the fortunes of day two at The Oval, though his reasons for doing so were perhaps as odd as the act itself
Broad interpretation of Aussie ritual elicits key moment
It was a misplaced belief in the power of an erroneous Australian superstition that saw Stuart Broad set in motion a chain of events that swung the fifth Ashes Test in England's favour yesterday afternoon.
Broad's bizarrely brazen move to take it upon himself and switch around the bails of Marnus Labuschagne's wicket led to the immediate dismissal of Australia's century maker in the previous Test, and triggered a marked change in fortunes as the visitors lost a series of wickets.
Up until that slightly surreal moment, Labuschagne and batting partner Usman Khawaja had negotiated almost 18 overs from England's four-pronged pace attack under heavy cloud without gifting England a chance and, admittedly, scoring only marginally more runs.
But it was shortly before lunch, with England's fast bowler Mark Wood charging in from The Oval's pavilion end, that Broad decided to try and manufacture some luck for his team by reverting to what he believed to be a ploy favoured by Australia players in similar situations.
As Wood made his way back to the top of his extravagantly long run-up, Broad sauntered in from his fielding position on the leg side, bent over the stumps and switched the position of the two bails.
Labuschagne is notoriously pernickety about the positioning of bails within their grooves at the top of the stumps and, having watched Broad's unsolicited intervention intently, immediately checked everything was ship-shape before facing up.
According to legend, ever since he was dismissed in a junior game when the off bail toppled because it was insecurely affixed, Labuschagne has resolutely checked that particular accoutrement is properly placed before each ball.
But it was not necessarily a measure to mess with his rival's mind that prompted Broad's rather random act, or so he claims.
"I've heard, but I might have made this up, it's an Aussie 'change of luck' thing, and I've seen Nathan Lyon do it and I feel like I've seen Justin Langer do it," Broad told a post-play media conference before noticing Australia's Steve Smith was also in the room, and sought confirmation of his theory.
"Is that right?"
When Smith shrugged to confirm he was not aware of any such fortune-inducing ritual performed by his long-time Australia and New South Wales teammate nor his former national coach, Broad simply soldiered on.
"Never heard of that … OK, could have just made that up.
"But we'd had a few play-and-misses in the morning session and we needed to make a breakthrough, and I thought I'd have a little change of the bails.
"Marnus is someone who would notice everything so he took notice of it, and I think Uzzie said something to him like 'I've seen someone do that before'.
"And then it just worked out pretty magically that the next ball 'Rooty' (Joe Root) took a great catch."
The fact Labuschagne then hung back in his crease and played late at the next delivery which was angled in to him, and the resultant edge was plucked nonchalantly by Root at slip as it fizzed to his left, had nothing to do with what had come before in a purely technical sense.
But the frustration Labuschagne aired to umpire Joel Wilson as he walked back towards Australia's dressing room, with the England celebratory huddle exuberantly embracing Broad, led some to deduce the Australia batter felt the two events were somehow connected.
Broad set the record straight on that matter, though he couldn't resist another dig at Labuschagne whose dismissal initiated more than just a fleeting shift in fortune, as Australia lost 6-94 in 30 overs from that moment and England seized the initiative.
"I think it was the dark," Broad said when asked what Labuschagne seemed to be chuntering about as he trudged from The Oval having scored nine in almost two hours at the crease.
"I think he was a bit unhappy with the light conditions.
"But he strikes me as a sort of batter that is never out, and he has to find a reason why he's out, so the light took a pounding."
The other sub-plot that played out in that pivotal passage of play from which Australia slumped to 7-185 before some last-gasp resistance carried them to 295 (and a lead of 12) moments before stumps, was Broad's interplay with Khawaja.
As England's players swamped Root in celebration of his stunning catch, Broad jogged past Khawaja and lightly patted him on the back before taking congratulations from his teammates for his part in the breakthrough against the run of play.
It was initially thought the gesture was a pointed reference to Khawaja's apparent reluctance to take a single at the start of that over from Wood, with Broad seemingly thanking the opener for keeping Labuschagne on strike thereby enabling the wicket.
But Broad later clarified that exchange was not pre-meditated, although it left him in no doubt as to what would happen if he attempted the 'bail switching' ploy when Khawaja is on strike.
"I randomly went and celebrated with Uzzie for some reason," Broad said.
"He said if you touch my bails, I'm putting them straight back', so he gave me an immediate warning."
While Broad's role in Labuschagne's downfall was more peripheral than integral, he was responsible for the implosion that took place immediately after lunch when he removed Khawaja (47) and Travis Head (4) in consecutive overs to put Australia squarely on the back foot.
In the process, the 37-year-old became the first England bowler to reach 150 Test wickets against Australia and overtook Mitchell Starc to become leading wicket-taker of this Ashes series with 20 at an average of 28.15.
It was his dismemberment of Australia's top-order that reduced any prospect of them building a sizeable first innings lead.
As a result, the series finale has been perhaps appropriately reduced to a one-inning shoot-out given the fine margins of difference between the teams throughout the campaign which is reflected in their respective first innings scores at The Oval.
Smith admitted there was a pervading disappointment in the Australia rooms after they had finally won a coin toss and granted their bowlers first use of the pitch on day one, then enjoyed good batting conditions for much of yesterday afternoon only to squander their solid start.
"We bowled them out (on Thursday) and overnight were 1-60 and going along nicely," Smith said at day's end, after Broad had foreshadowed that day three at The Oval is often the optimum time to bat.
"The wicket playing the way it did today, there wasn't a great deal of sideways off the wicket (but) it swung around most of the day to be fair, and they are obviously very good swing bowlers.
"But a lot of us got starts and weren't able to capitalise and go and put one of those partnerships that were 40 or 50 into 100 150 to give us a decent lead.
"So a bit disappointing from that aspect.
"I would have liked a few more partners to maybe stick around and be able to just play normally for a while."
2023 Qantas Ashes Tour of the UK
First Test: Australia won by two wickets
Second Test: Australia won by 43 runs
Third Test: England won by three wickets
Fourth Test: Match drawn
Fifth Test: Thursday July 27-Monday 31, The Oval
Australia squad: Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey (wk), Cameron Green, Marcus Harris, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis (wk), Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitch Marsh, Todd Murphy, Michael Neser, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith (vc), Mitchell Starc, David Warner
England squad: Ben Stokes (c), Rehan Ahmed, James Anderson, Jonathan Bairstow, Stuart Broad, Harry Brook, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Dan Lawrence, Jack Leach, Ollie Pope, Matthew Potts, Ollie Robinson, Joe Root, Josh Tongue, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood