The bait ball lurked. After blasting Cooper Connolly on his pads with a flat ball on leg stump, Rashid Khan pulled the length back a fraction, pushed the ball faster through the air and outside off stump. He could almost imagine the batsman’s response: a cut from the crease, either feathering an edge or dragging the ball onto the stumps. But Connolly imagined the unimagined. He shifted to the back foot but, instead of going horizontal, opened up his body and clubbed him down the ground with a sweet, straight bat-swing — front foot in the air, back foot pivoting like an axis.
- April 2, 2026
