England v South Africa 2022

Watch: Stuart Broad sets up and prises out Dean Elgar in impeccable first-change working over

by Wisden Staff August 25, 2022 - 1:23pm 2 minute read

Watch: A brilliant over from Stuart Broad culminated in the wicket of Dean Elgar during the opening day of the Manchester Test, setting him up with a delivery that jagged away enough to take the outside edge.

Broad did not take the new ball for the first time at home since the 2013 Ashes, coming in as first-change behind James Anderson and Ollie Robinson. Elgar’s opening partner Sarel Erwee had already departed in the fifth over with the score reading 3-1, before Broad proceeded to snare the South Africa captain.

It was a classic setup: bowling from around the wicket, he angled the first ball into Elgar, who left it alone, and wicketkeeper Ben Foakes did well to adjust to the late lateral movement. The next ball, drifting towards the leg-stump, pinged high into his front pad, extracting a half-hearted appeal. The third was pitched fuller, and was duly dug out by Elgar. The fourth ball, also angled in, struck him on the front pad and elicited a more fervent appeal.

And then came the sucker punch.

Broad held his length back a tad and delivered the next ball outside off. The ball straightened just enough to trick Elgar. He prodded at it, but only managed a thick edge to third slip, where Jonny Bairstow took a neat, low catch. It left South Africa on 35-2, and took Broad to 556 Test wickets. Another one the following over made it 557, now only six scalps behind Glenn McGrath’s career tally.