Former England pacer Stuart Broad had quite a few bunnies in Test cricket. While both recency bias and highest number of dismissals make it but obvious for fans to remember his entertaining rivalry with veteran Australia batter David Warner, one of Broad’s preferred batter to dominate against was former South Africa captain AB de Villiers.
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It is to be noted that Broad dismissing de Villiers 10 times across 14 Test matches is the joint 10th number of dismissals between a batter-bowler pair in Test cricket. Apart from Warner and de Villiers, Broad had also managed to have the better of former Australia captains Michael Clarke (11) and Steven Smith (11) and New Zealand current and former captains in Tom Latham (10) and Ross Taylor (10) respectively during his playing days.
Broad, whose bizarre bail trick yielded his team a wicket in both innings of the fifth Ashes 2023 Test match against Australia last month, recently narrated another anecdote depicting his duplicitous on a cricket field.
Having Dismissed AB de Villiers 10 Times In Tests, Stuart Broad Narrates Untold Story About 2016 Centurion Dismissal
Speaking to de Villiers on his YouTube channel named AB de Villiers 360 on Sunday, Broad disclosed how a “sleeve trick” had prepared wicket-keeper Jonny Bairstow for a catch in the first innings of the fourth Test of England’s tour of South Africa 2016 in Centurion.
Leading the Proteas at the time, de Villiers was dismissed for a second-ball duck in the evening session on Day 1. Although not caught by Bairstow, de Villiers did fall into Broad’s plan of forcing him to play at a leg-cutter way outside the off-stump.
“I can tell you something about that ball. No one knows it – only Jonny Bairstow [knows it]. When I am going to bowl that ball, at the end of my mark, I pick my [right] sleeve up like that. That’s a signal to the wicket-keeper to come a yard forward catch the nick. So I would look around pull my sleeve up and Jonny Bairstow creeps in.”
de Villiers, who admitted to not be in “top form” during that series, was found wanting against a James Anderson delivery for another second-ball duck in the second innings. Having registered consecutive silver ducks, it was the only time when the right-handed batter bagged a pair in the format.
Been out without scoring a run in the second innings of the third Test in Johannesburg as well, it was also a rare instance for de Villiers to register three ducks in a row. Co-incidentally, three out of his eight Test ducks had come at the SuperSport Park.
Apart From Stuart Broad, Which Bowler Had Dismissed AB de Villiers The Most In Test Cricket?
Other than Broad, former Australia fast bowlers Peter Siddle (6) and Mitchell Johnson (5) and former India fast bowler Sreesanth (5) had dismissed de Villiers the most in Test cricket.
Speaking of ODIs, former Pakistan spinner Saeed Ajmal (6), former Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi (5) and former Sri Lanka spinner Ajantha Mendis (4) had successfully called the shots against Mr. 360 back in the day.
Interestingly, spinners namely Ravichandran Ashwin (3), Adil Rashid (3) and Afridi (2) had dismissed de Villiers the most in T20Is. While Broad had sent him back to the pavilion twice across 12 ODIs, he failed to dismiss the hard-hitting batter even once across seven T20I outings.
