‘You wonder what your last ball will be so to take a wicket to win an Ashes Test match is pretty cool.’
Stuart Broad finished his cricketing career on a high as he claimed the final two Australian wickets to bowl England to a series-levelling 49-run victory in the final Ashes Test at The Oval in London on Monday.
Broad, playing his final Test, claimed the wickets of Todd Murphy and Alex Carey to dismiss Australia for 334 and deny them their first Ashes win in England since 2001.
The 37-year-old Broad completed the job in a perfect swansong with the last two wickets, two days after announcing his retirement.
Broad got Murphy caught behind by wicket-keeper Jonny Bairstow and five runs later the veteran pacer produced another perfect outswinger to end Carey’s resistance for 28 and spark wild celebrations around the ground.
Broad finished his career with 604 wickets from 167 Tests — the second most by a pace bowler behind England team-mate James Anderson, who has 690 wickets from 183 Tests.
‘It was absolutely wonderful,’ Broad told Sky Sports. ‘I thought Chris Woakes and Moeen Ali set the tone absolutely unbelievably.’
‘Once we got a couple we really started to believe. The crowd were unbelievable. It was so loud and we just jumped on the back of that. To contribute to the team with two wickets is very special,’ Broad added.
‘When you make that decision (to retire) you wonder what your last ball will be so to take a wicket to win an Ashes Test match is pretty cool.’
Captain Ben Stokes praised Broad, who took the final two wickets of the match to secure the win — the first of them right after switching around the bails on the stumps at the non-striker’s end seemingly to break the batters’ concentration.
‘If you went to the bookies and said Broad would flip the bails and then get two wickets, you’d get very very good odds,’ Stokes joked.
‘That bloke has been incredible for England. I’m so glad his family were here to see him help us win a match we needed to win not to lose the Ashes,’ he added.
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