Watch: Harry Brook survived a close call before reaching his century on day three in Multan, when the ball ricocheted back onto his stumps but failed to dislodge the bails.
Brook had already passed 50 when the incident happened, and was 25 runs off his sixth Test hundred. Facing Aamer Jamal, he defended a back-of-a-length ball, which bounced off the pitch and up into his chest, almost onto the grill of his helmet. The ball then fell back onto the pitch and rolled backwards towards the stumps. Brook attempted to kick the ball away with his right foot, but missed. The ball hit the base of middle stump before Brook could sweep it away with his bat, but failed to dislodge the bails.
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MCC Law 29.1 states: "The wicket is broken when at least one bail is completely removed from the top of the stumps, or one or more stumps is removed from the ground."
This is followed by law 29.2.2 which states: "The disturbance of a bail, whether temporary or not, shall not constitute its complete removal from the top of the stumps, but if a bail in falling lodges between two of the stumps, this shall be regarded a complete removal."
Thus, even if the bails were slightly moved from their groove when the ball hit the stumps, they settled straight back into their grooves, and Brook remained not out.
Brook went on to reach his sixth Test century, and fourth against Pakistan out of six innings, off 118 balls. He and Joe Root, who went past Alastair Cook as England's all-time leading run-scorer earlier in the day, took England well past 400 for the loss of three wickets during the second half of the evening session.
Watch: Ball hits stumps, doesn't dislodge bails to save Harry Brook
What happened there?! 😲
— Pakistan Cricket (@TheRealPCB) October 9, 2024
Brook is rendered lucky 🏏#PAKvENG | #TestAtHome pic.twitter.com/qk5dzRKEYn
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