5 Australia Cricket facts that sound fake but are actually true

2. Dennis Lillee came to bat with an Aluminum bat in Tests against England

Denis Lillee is regarded as one of the most outstanding pacers of his generation. Apart from being the best in his business, he displayed a fiery temperament on the field as well. However, an incident related to him during the 1979 Test series against England caught much attention.

Australia was up against England and Lillee remained unbeaten on day 1 at stumps and he batted with a conventional wooden bat. On the next day, he walked up the field with an aluminum bat which shook everyone. When he tried to hit the ball, it produced a great amount of sound but the ball couldn’t touch the boundary line.

Australia skipper Greg Chappell signalled him to go for the wooden bat but the pacer continued in his action. Ten minutes later, Chappell himself walked on the field with a wooden bat and Lillee realized that he has no option left. He literally threw his aluminum bat and continued with the wooden one. He later revealed that he used the other bat purely for a marketing purpose as it was his business friend’s idea, who was also a club cricketer.