This was not the first time Lillee had used an aluminium bat, as he had employed one 12 days previously in a Test against the West Indies without incident.
However, Australian captain Greg Chappell thought that the ball should have gone for a four, and instructed twelfth man Rodney Hogg to deliver a conventional wooden bat to Lillee.
As this was happening, English captain Mike Brearley complained to umpires Max O'Connell and Don Weser that the metallic bat was damaging the soft, leather cricket ball.
Wisden Cricketers' Almanack said that Lillee's "'unsavoury' behaviour partly overshadowed other individual performances more in keeping with the spirit of the game", and commented "The incident served only to blacken Lillee's reputation and damage the image of the game as well as, eventually, the Australian authorities because of their reluctance to take effective disciplinary action".
[4] After the game, sales of the bat skyrocketed for a few months, with Monaghan giving Lillee a small cut of the profits.