England skipper Ben Stokes was caught up in a rare incident on the third day of the fourth Ashes Test at Old Trafford. The all-rounder was almost run out early into the day’s play but the tourists did not appeal despite replays showing he was short of his ground.
England were on the march for more quick runs after a blistering day two was lit up by Zak Crawley’s stunning 189. Stokes was keen to put pressure on the Australia fielders with the forecast looking extremely poor at the weekend in a must-win match for the hosts.
Stokes started the morning on 24 and had already hit a boundary to move onto 31 at the time of the incident. He smashed a Mitchell Starc delivery through the covers and came back for two.
Substitute fielder Michael Neser fielded expertly well and fired the ball in at Stokes’ end. A direct hit would have seen the England batter run out by a distance.
A clean collection from Alex Carey would have also seen Stokes dismissed. However, the Australia wicket-keeper dropped the ball before smashing the stumps with his empty gloves.
Carey signalled to the square leg umpire that he had broken the stumps and therefore did not appeal. But replays proved very interesting.
Carey did drop the ball but it went straight onto the stumps, with Stokes short of his ground. He then carried through by smashing the stumps with his gloves.
As there was no appeal, the incident was not referred to the third umpire. But it caused plenty of discussion among the Sky Sports commentators.
Former England batter Mark Butcher said: Butcher: “Oh goodness me. The ball hit the stump first and then the gloves. And it looks as if it was the gloves that removed the bails.
“But the ball certainly went from glove to stump. But one thing’s for sure, if Carey took that cleanly I think Ben Stokes was gone.”
Ex-England skipper Nasser Hussain wondered why the third umpire was not asked. He said: “Yeah that was an interesting angle that last one, whether it was ball dislodging bail or gloves. Difficult to tell.
“I was trying to work out why the third umpire didn’t even have a look at it. Maybe that’s why, it’s very difficult to tell which hits the stumps first.”
To which Butcher replied: “You can’t find anything if you don’t look for it. But there was no decision was there? No decision to go to the third umpire.
“Australia didn’t really appeal either. It would have been very interesting to see what decision came out of that.
“A serious point though. How do you decipher whether or not the ball had enough energy to remove the bail, did the bail come out of the groove just before Carey’s gloves hit the stump?”
Hussain responded: “Yeah a difficult one but the third umpire should have had a look, assuming there was an appeal. But you’re right, there wasn’t actually an appeal from Australia.”
Butcher concluded that the right decision was made. He said: “We’ve watched it two or three times there and I think you can make the argument that the bail touching middle stump was still in its groove until the glove made contact with the stump. We think it’s probably not out.”
Third umpire Kumar Dharmasena contacted the commentary box and said Butcher’s summation was correct. Hussain said: “Just hearing from Kumar Dharmasena about how Butch described that. Perfectly, he said. He got it spot on.”
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