Ben Stokes' spicy take on Bairstow dismissal matches with viral 12-year-old MS Dhoni-Ian Bell incident
With both sides arguing their cases, some fans have revisited a moment that was crowned by the ICC with its ‘Spirit of the Decade’ award in a similar situation.
The controversial Jonny Bairstow wicket from the second Test match of the Ashes has ignited a debate between fans, audiences, and pundits on the internet, as the spirit of the dismissal has been brought into question. With both sides arguing their cases, some fans have revisited a moment that was crowned by the ICC with its ‘Spirit of the Decade’ award in a similar situation.
In a now-iconic moment, Ian Bell was run-out under contentious circumstances on the last ball before tea break during the Trent Bridge Test between England and India in 2011, after Praveen Kumar prevented a boundary and threw the ball back in. The stumps were knocked over, and Bell was judged run-out once TV replays confirmed it wasn’t a boundary.
The Indian team was booed off the field in what was considered a poorly spirited dismissal, but MS Dhoni would retract the appeal, and Bell came back to the crease after the tea break. Dhoni was lauded for his sportsmanship, but would under the rules of the game would have been perfectly entitled to holding their appeal in place.
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Twitter users have taken to re-sharing videos of that incident involving Dhoni and Bell, acting as a commentary on the standards for the spirit of cricket held by the former Indian captain.
While Pat Cummins chose to double-down on Australia’s decision, stating Alex Carey had premeditated the dismissal and made a tactical choice to try and throw Bairstow out, opposing captain Ben Stokes mentioned to the BBC’s Test Match Special that he would have withdrawn the appeal in such a situation.
According to the laws, the dismissal should have stood, and it will go down in the books as a clever and alert piece of wicketkeeping by Carey combined with a lapse in concentration by Bairstow. The same could be applied to Bell’s dismissal, who himself has admitted in the past it was an error on his part.
"If the shoe was on the other foot I would have put more pressure on the umpires and asked whether they had called over and had a deep think about the whole spirit of the game. Would I want to win a game in that manner? The answer for me is no," he had said on Sunday.
A similar situation to Bell’s run-out occurred in a match between Australia and Pakistan in 2018, when Azhar Ali was dismissed in a similar fashion to Bell, with Tim Paine capitalizing on the Pakistani batter’s lack of awareness and chose to stand with the appeal.
Australia’s alertness worked out in this situation, with the Bairstow dismissal being a turning point in the contest and paving the way to victory. Dhoni’s withdrawn appeal came in a match lost by 319 runs, in the infamous 4-0 series loss to England in 2011.
