Ravi Ashwin records Stuart Broad’s frantic celebration in Notts dugout after ball deflects off Stokes’ bat in final

India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin is having a good individual run in the English County this season though his team Nottinghamshire is not doing its best. The Notts played Surrey at home ground Trent Bridge between July 13-15 but lost the match by 167 runs. Ashwin personally had a great game as he picked 12 wickets in the match and also scored 66 not out in an otherwise futile chase of 349. It was a 56-run partnership between Ashwin and Stuart Broad for the ninth wicket which put up a minimal resistance in the game.

However, at stumps on Day 2 when Surrey were 184 for 7 and the Notts were still to know what was coming, their players had a gala time watching the World Cup final between England and New Zealand on the television in the dressing room at Trent Bridge. The English players were ecstatic to see their country making a last-minute comeback into the game which they eventually won by the virtue of hitting more boundaries after the Super Over to break the tie also ended in a tie!

Six runs that England got without any big hit

England were left to score 15 runs in the final over which was bowled by Trent Boult. Ben Stokes was on strike and after he refused to take run in the first two balls since a tail-ender was at the other end, he hit a six in the third ball. The equation then read nine off three and then disaster struck the Kiwis. As Stokes hit one on the side and ran desperately to get back to strike, fielder Martin Guptill threw the ball in and hit the batsman’s bat to go for four runs.

Stokes apologised to the fielding side but the umpire – Kumara Dharmasena – gifted six runs to England when experts felt they should have got only five. That one run proved to be vital in the game as England also made 241 in response to NZ’s 241 for 8. The match then went to the Super Over and although both teams again made 15 in one over, England were declared champions since they had hit more boundaries in the game than their opponents.

Till that deflection, England were feeling the pressure and once that happened, the English supporters including the Nottinghamshire players at the Trent Bridge dressing room, were over the moon. Broad was seen reacting frantically as England gained those six runs without the ball sailing over the ropes and Ashwin did record his excitement. Broad, who was part of the England World Cup squad in Australia and New Zealand in 2015, later shared the video on his Twitter account where he called the fortunate deflection as a “1 in a million” one.