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Ben Stokes’ reign as permanent England test captain is off to a winning start, with the Poms leading 2-0 against New Zealand.

The third test started yesterday at Headingley and it was Stokes’ famous batting partner, Jack Leach, who benefitted from a staggering piece of luck to claim his second wicket of the day.

Stokes and Leach shared that iconic 73-run last-wicket partnership to claim victory in the 2019 Ashes test at the same venue. Don’t worry, Sky Sports will show the highlights at every opportunity. It’s basically their version of SuperSport airing the famous 438 run chase.

With the Black Caps ticking along at 123/4, Henry Nicholls crunched a drive down the ground. Rather than racing to the boundary, the ball struck the bat of the non-striker, Daryl Mitchell, and looped gently to Alex Lees.

It took a moment, and a replay or two, for everyone to realise what had just occurred:

What on earth!? 😅🙈

Scorecard/clips: https://t.co/AIVHwaRwQv

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 #ENGvNZ 🇳🇿 pic.twitter.com/yb41LrnDr9

— England Cricket (@englandcricket) June 23, 2022

Terribly unlucky for Nicholls, but England deserve their good fortune after playing some brave cricket this series.

At the close of play, Leach said of the wicket, “it was unbelievable, I’ve never seen anything like it”.

Well, he must have missed that time Andrew Symonds was dismissed against Sri Lanka in a similar manner.

On that occasion, Michael Clarke was the non-striker:

The Henry Nicholls dismissal wasn’t the first of his kind.
Here’s the og v (in)famous dismissal of the late Andrew Symonds. Clarke being the antagonist in this case. pic.twitter.com/Y7qL2ypAoT

— Mustafeez/مستفیض (@Misterfeezz) June 23, 2022

Vintage Symonds telling Clarke he owes him a beer just after the 20-second mark.

I’d hope Pup bought the late Ozzie a drink or three given what Symonds could do when he was unhappy.

[source:ndtv]