World’s Unluckiest Cricket Player Hit in the Crotch on Consecutive Balls
“That has nailed him in the gooly wooly woolies”
Maybe cricket batsmen need to start wearing cups.
Alex Hales and the Trent Rockets faced the Oval Invincibles on Sunday in a new English cricket competition called The Hundred. How The Hundred differs from other forms of cricket is not worth getting into here because you don’t need to know anything about the rules to understand what happened to Hales.
Hales was batting against Reece Topley when he was hit in the crotch not once but twice. On consecutive balls.
The first nut shot came after Hales swung and missed at a delivery that bounced up and drilled him, causing him to let out an anguished “oh, no!”
“That has nailed him in the gooly wooly woolies,” the announcer said.
You would think that Hales would be more protective of his nether regions after the first incident but no. On the very next ball, Hales was struck once again in the gooly wooly woolies, at which point everybody on the field but Hales was chuckling softly.
I know next to nothing about cricket, but I do know that Hales isn’t even the only English batsman to get hit in the nuts twice during the same turn at bat.
In January 2020, during a match in Australia’s Big Bash League, Liam Livingstone was hit in the crotch twice within a span of a few balls. The Livingstone clip is one of my favorite videos on the internet because he was wearing a microphone, which means we got to hear him yell, “Oh, nooo!” (just as Hales did) loud and clear.
Because of the way the bowler bounces the ball and how the batter opens his hips up as he swings, getting hit in the crotch doesn’t appear to be all that uncommon in cricket. Just ask English star Ben Stokes, who, after getting hit where the sun don’t shine in 2019 during the prestigious Ashes test series, yelled, “Ahhh, in the d---!” as he crumpled to the turf.
The best of SI
Final takeaways from the Tokyo Olympics, from SI’s reporters on the ground. ... From the Vault: Tim Layden on Bobby Bowden. ... How the U.S. came from behind to overtake China on the medal table on the final day.
Around the sports world
Iran’s Sajad Ganjzadeh won a gold medal in karate despite being knocked out because his opponent’s kick was deemed too powerful. ... Marcus Ericsson won the IndyCar race on the streets of Nashville despite going airborne on the fourth lap. ... The entire Ole Miss football team and all its staffers have been vaccinated against COVID-19.
She deserves a promotion
You can’t throw a better pass than this
Regular-season-quality dunk
Brady was eating up that crowd reaction
He’s very fast
I don’t want to spoil the twist in this clip, but it’s outstanding
This is pretty much the slowest you can throw a pitch and still reach the plate
Is he going to say the same thing after the Bucs come to town in Week 4?
Not sports
A woman who fainted at a national park thought she was watching TV when she woke up, but it was actually actress Julie Bowen helping her. ... A Russian is suing McDonald’s claiming a cheeseburger ad was so irresistible that it made her break her fast during Lent.
Very cool
A good song
Email dan.gartland@si.com with any feedback or follow me on Twitter for approximately one half-decent baseball joke per week. Bookmark this page to see previous editions of Hot Clicks and find the newest edition every day. By popular request I’ve made a Spotify playlist of the music featured here. Visit our Extra Mustard page throughout each day for more offbeat sports stories.
