Who writes your scripts? So asked Graham Gooch of Ian Botham at the Oval in 1986 after the all-rounder picked up a wicket with his first ball back in Test cricket after a 63-day ban for admitting to smoking dope.
This was one of many scene-stealing moments in Botham’s outstanding career, making New Zealand’s Bruce Edgar Test victim No 355 and, therefore, equalling Dennis Lillee’s world record before, just 11 balls later, making it his own when Jeff Crowe (match referee for this current series with India) was pinned lbw with a ball that jagged back in.
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