5 Cricket facts that sound fake but are actually true

2. Adam Gilchrist’s squash-ball trick

In the 2007 World Cup final, Adam Gilchrist picked the bones out of Sri Lanka at the Kensington Oval in Barbados. The southpaw smashed 149 off 104 balls, helping his team post 281 in 38 overs in a rain-curtailed encounter. That he managed to smash 13 fours and eight colossal sixes caught the limelight.

But then, he used a trick, which helped him generate more force in his fierce stroke-play. The left-hander tucked a squash ball inside his left glove and he showed it off after he reached the century. The ball helped him to increase the impulse, increasing the force on the cricket ball.

Later he said that he was using it after advice from his batting coach in Perth. In the final, his 172-run stand for the opening wicket laid the platform for Australia’s third World Cup victory on the trot.