The cricket world witnessed something out of the ordinary on the opening day of the first Test between England and Pakistan at Headingley. After deciding to bowl first, the home team bowled the visitors out for a paltry 171 in their first innings with pacers Ollie Robinson and Josh Tongue taking a five-for each. This was not the first instance that two pacers combined and took equal wickets to dismantle a team.
What was first was that the ball was cut in half. Why? It’s a tradition, particularly in Test cricket, when a bowler takes a five-for, they lead the team out of the field after bowling the opposition out, holding the ball high up in one hand and acknowledging the accolades from team-mates as well as the crowd. And they keep the ball too as a souvenir.
But on day one at Headingley, there were two bowlers with a five-for. As a result, the ball was cut in half so that both Robinson and Tongue could keep it as a souvenir.
“Robbo said we can split the ball in half,” Tongue told BBC’s Test Match Special. “The ground staff have kindly done that. It’s the first time I’ve seen that happen. I’m sure I’ll be putting that up somewhere,” he added.
Meanwhile, Robinson, who recently returned to international cricket after more than two years, showed his half of the ball to the media and said: “We were walking off the field. Josh said it, and I said, ‘We actually should do that, it would be quite cool.’ You don’t really have too many halves of a cricket ball, so it would be something that we never forget.”
“Wayne Bentley, the team manager, took it down to the ground staff. I said: ‘Do you reckon they will be able to do it?’ Within five minutes, he brought it back up, and it was done. It’s really nice,” he added.
Robinson, who became a dad for a second time last week, also shed light on the new development. “I’ve been catching up on my sleep since I got to the hotel in Leeds. It’s a really special week, having another baby. It almost makes today even sweeter, when you leave them after the birth, and you put a performance in. It meant a lot today to do that. I know they’re not here, but I was thinking of them the whole time,” he said.
