“That’s definitely not me, since when did I bowl with the new ball,” Stokes tweeted.
England is down 2-0 in the five-match Test series against Australia after losing the Lord’s Test by 43 runs. But Jonny Bairstow’s controversial dismissal in England’s second innings had even elicited a comment from British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
Jonny Bairstow’s dismissal was not in keeping with the spirit of the game, Sunak’s spokesman told reporters. “The prime minister agrees with (England captain) Ben Stokes who said he simply wouldn’t want to win a game in the manner that Australia did,” the spokesman said.
When Bairstow had scored 10 runs during England’s second innings, after ducking a slow bouncer from Cameron Green, the wicketkeeper batsman immediately left his crease to have a chat with Ben Stokes in the middle, believing that the ball was ‘dead’. However, wicketkeeper Alex Carey broke the stumps and the third umpire gave a decision in favour of Australia.
Though Bairstow’s dismissal was within the rules of the game, England captain Ben Stokes believed Australia broke “the spirit” of the laws of cricket. “Do I want to win in that manner?” Stokes posed. “The answer for me is no.”“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 and would I want to do something like that.”
Coming back to the game itself, Ben Stokes’s fighting innings of 155 in England’s second innings drew a lot of
admiration from cricketers. The England captain delighted the packed Sunday crowd with a counter-attacking knock of 155 off 214 balls in the face of a barrage of bouncers from the Australian quicks.
“I wasn’t joking about calling Ben Stokes the most competitive bloke I’ve played against. Innings of the highest quality but Australia is too good at the moment,” Virat Kohli tweeted.
England will now be looking to avenge their losses with the in the third Test which gets underway on July 7 at Headingley.
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