Stuart Broad bowls Test cricket’s most expensive over

Stuart Broad sent down the most expensive over in Test history as India piled on tail-end runs at Edgbaston.

Visiting captain Jasprit Bumrah was throwing the bat with abandon, at one point swinging himself off his feet as Broad’s over went for 35 – seven more than the previous record.

Here we recap the over and how it compares.

Broad had previously been hit for six sixes in an over by Yuvraj Singh in a Twenty20 clash with India in 2007, a fact former India captain Sachin Tendulkar was quick to allude to when he tweeted in Hindi: “Is it Yuvi or Bumrah?”

There was no precedent in Test cricket for what unfolded just before 11.30 in Birmingham.

Ball 1: Four runs

Broad seemingly decided to attack Bumrah with short balls, but the first was hooked for four just out of reach of boundary fielder Zak Crawley.

Ball 2: Five wides

Bounced well out of reach of both Bumrah and wicketkeeper Sam Billings, the ball went to the boundary with a fifth run tacked on for the wide.

Ball 3: No-ball, six runs

Bumrah top-edged another hook fine over Billings’ head for six, with a no-ball from Broad again spelling an extra run and leaving him with five deliveries still to bowl.

Ball 4: Four runs

Broad finally delivered a second legitimate ball, but over-corrected aiming for a fuller length and saw a high full toss crashed down the ground and just short of the long-on boundary for four.

Ball 5: Four runs

An inside edge past leg stump found the boundary once more and took India’s total past 400.

Ball 6: Four runs

The most extraordinary shot of the lot, Bumrah again hooked through midwicket but lost his footing in the process and narrowly avoided kicking his stumps down. Television cameras captured Virat Kohli and others in hysterics on the India balcony.

Ball 7: Six runs

Having already equalled the unwanted record of 28, Broad still had the two extra balls to bowl – the first of which was hooked for six more.

Ball 8: One run

Bumrah kept the strike by digging out a yorker for a tip-and-run single. Broad attempted to run out Mohammas Siraj at the keeper’s end as both batters dived for their ground before, to his credit, helping Bumrah to his feet with a smile.

Broad avoided further punishment by taking the catch to remove last man Siraj in James Anderson’s next over.

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Bumrah and Broad’s exchange smashed the previous record for runs in a Test over – with Broad’s long-time new-ball partner Anderson and team-mate Joe Root possibly relieved.

Three times in Test history an over has gone for 28 runs, with the England pair among the bowlers on the receiving end.

Anderson suffered as Australia set up a declaration in Perth in 2013, George Bailey taking him for four, six, two, four, six and six as Anderson finished with chastening figures of nought for 105 off 19 overs.

Root’s over came in more unlikely circumstances, at the tail end of an innings win over South Africa in January 2020. The Proteas were 138 for nine needing 290 just to make England bat again, but Keshav Maharaj tucked into the bit-part spinner with three straight fours and a pair of sixes – the over completed by four byes – during a last-wicket stand of 99 with Dane Paterson before a run-out produced the inevitable result.

Bumrah, with 29 off his bat in Broad’s over in addition to the extras, moves top of a list previously headed by Bailey, Maharaj and West Indies great Brian Lara, who hit four fours and two sixes in a Robin Peterson over against South Africa in 2003 to first set the record of 28.