Monday 7 September 2015

That's not fair Steve

2nd Innings, 4th ball of the 26th over, England vs Australia, 1st ODI at Lord's.

The man on strike was England all-rounder Ben Stokes and the bowler running in was the tall lanky Australian pacer, Mitchell Starc.

This is what happened.

Now watch it again, what Ben Stokes did was more a spontaneous reaction trying to save himself.

Yes, replays do make it look like he made a conscious effort to avoid the ball hitting the stumps, but that's what action replays do. They are super slow. Watch it real time and it is obvious that what Stokes was doing was what most people would've done.

The ball was thrown from the wrong side for the right-handed Stokes and just because of the angle that Starc was throwing it from, to him it must've felt like it would go and hit him. It's only a little later does he realise that the ball will not hit him but was moving towards the stump.

His fault? Well, he was trying to save himself from any harm and since the time taken for the ball to reach him after it leaves Starc's hand is barely half a second, what he did was totally and completely an honest mistake.

I stand by Stokes and believe that he didn't do anything wrong and it was not fair on Australian Captain Steve Smith's part to have appealed for that.

Stokes has now joined an elite list of batsmen who have been dismissed by Law 37.

Player
Runs
Team
Opposition
Ground
Date
Rameez Raja
99
Pakistan
England
Karachi
Nov 20, 1987
Mohinder Amarnath
28
India
Sri Lankan
Ahmedabad
Oct 22,1089
Daryll Cullinan
46
South Africa
West Indies
Durban
Jan 27, 1999
Inzamam –ul-Haq
16
Pakistan
India
Peshwar
Feb 6, 2006
Mohammed Hafeez
0
Pakistan
South Africa
Durban
Mar 21, 2013
Anwar Ali
7
Pakistan
South Africa
Port Elizabeth
Nov 27, 2013
Ben Stokes
10
England
Australia
The Lord’s
Sept 5, 20

No comments:

Post a Comment