'Dharmasena told me it would be out...': Broad discloses chat with on-field umpire after Smith survived run out scare

England pacer Stuart Broad added a fresh perspective to the debate after revealing his chat with on-field umpire and Menon's colleague, Kumar Dharmasena.

Steve Smith and Australia survived a scare when visitors were still 85 runs short of England's first-innings mark on the second evening of the fifth Ashes Test in London. Smith had almost walked back to the dug out before a careful evaluation of TV umpire Nitin Menon saved him and Australia as the Pat Cummins-led side, riding the the former's 71-run knock secured a slender 12-run lead. While MCC issued clarification on the contentious non-dismissal of Smith which sparked a huge debate in social media, England pacer Stuart Broad added a fresh perspective to the talk after revealing his chat with on-field umpire and Menon's colleague, Kumar Dharmasena.

Stuart Broad added fresh perspective to Steve Smith debate as he revealed his chat with on-field umpire

It could have gone down as the dismissal to force an England comeback in the series to a 2-2 result after a bullet of a throw from substitute George Ealham was collected by wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow and the bails were dislodged as a diving Smith fell short of the crease. While an apparent look at the incident left Smith as a victim to a brilliant piece of fielding, but Menon, going through the replays, found out that the bails were dislodged by Bairstow before collecting the ball.

Unlike the previous instance during this Ashes series, which pertained to that controversial stumping of Bairstow in the second Test, there was no words said from the England camp. In fact, Broad, in the post-match presser, looked confused about the exact rules before revealing his conversation win on-field umpire Dharamsena.

"I honestly don't know the rules," Broad said. "I think there was enough grey area to give that not out. It looked like benefit of the doubt sort of stuff, first angle I saw I thought out, and then the side angle it looked like the bails probably dislodged. Kumar said to me if it was zing bails it would been given out, I don't really understand the reasoning why."

Smith revealed that he had accepted his fate when he first took a look at the replay and hence had almost made his way back to the pavilion.

"I saw the initial replay and saw the bail come up, and when I looked at it the second time looked like Jonny might have knocked the bail before the ball had come," he said. "Looked pretty close at that stage, if the ball had hit at the initial stage when the bail came then think I was well out of my ground."

Had Smith been dismissed then, Australia would have found themselves 8 down for 194 with England staring at a stunning turnaround in the match after being folded for 283 runs on Day 1. But Smith's 71 helped Australia finish with 295, courtesy of a 49-run stand between Todd Murphy and Pat Cummins.