FANS have been left in awe at Gary Neville’s surprise cricket skills as he and fellow pundit Jamie Carragher were put through their paces by England legend Stuart Broad.
The bowler is a huge Nottingham Forest fan and was at the City Ground for their Friday Night clash against Newcastle.
Sky SportsStuart Broad gave the football pundits a lesson on cricket[/caption]
Sky SportsIt turned out that former youth cricketer Neville had lost very few of his skills[/caption]
Given his connections to the Tricky Trees, Sky Sports recruited Broad to put Neville and Carragher out of their comfort zone with some cricket.
The pair took to the indoor crease with Broad bowling some expert balls in their direction.
Decked out in full cricket gear, both Neville and Carragher initially struggled to get to grips with the challenge, with the former Liverpool defender at one point quipping of his rival: “This is worse than his Valencia moment!“
But the longer the challenge went on, the clearer it became that there was a quality gap between the pundits.
And Neville, the former opening batsman for his local cricket club Greenmount, impressed both Broad and Sky Sports viewers.
One wrote on Twitter: “Think Nev can open in place of [Zak] Crawley.”
Another viewer went with a similar theme as they said: “Neville can’t be worst then Crawley being honest.”
While another fan said: “[Neville is] a much better batsman than a manager.”
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Other tweeters dug out an old newspaper headline from the Bury Times which showed a young Neville alongside Australian opener Matthew Hayden as they clocked up the runs for Greenmount.
The former Manchester United full-back managed to respond impressively to some of Broad’s fierce bowling, smacking the ball back towards the bowler on multiple occasions.
But Carragher struggle to connect with most of Broad’s balls and even had his wickets taken out on one occasion.
Broad, 36, declared Neville the winner at the end of the challenge.
A fun day for England’s cricketer would however finish with a duff note as his beloved Forest side conceded a late penalty to lose against Newcastle.
Sky SportsBowler Broad is England’s second highest wicket taker in test cricket[/caption]
Sky SportsNeville was happy with his superior performance compared to Carragher[/caption]