Despite the outrage from the England players, the Lord's crowd and MCC members in the Long Room, the dismissal of Jonny Bairstow was perfectly fair.
Alex Carey, the Australian wicket keeper, had noticed that Bairstow has a habit of wandering out of his ground when the ball has passed him. His stumping was effected by taking the ball and throwing it at the stumps in one movement.
In fact Bairstow was still in his ground as Carey threw the ball and obligingly wandered out of it while the ball travelled towards his stumps.
Most of the criticism of Carey's actions is predicated on the idea that everyone thought the over had finished when he threw the ball. That is clearly not the case.
Incidentally, when he was keeping earlier in the game Bairstow noticed that Marcus Labuschagne was batting out of his crease and tried to dismiss him in the same way. His throw missed, which reminds us of the skill that Carey displayed.
pic.twitter.com/9a0dvtjbB6
— Wayne Bristow (@Wayne1609) July 2, 2023
And Pete it literally was attempted not 2 days prior and by whom?
5 comments:
It depends on what you mean by fair. It's in the rules and that's all Cummins seems to be interested in.
If I were bowling in the next test I'd whip off the bails when he was backing up. The Umpire would have to give him out because that's in the rules. It's not in the spirit of the game though.
You obviously believe it wasn't fair, but you don't offer any arguments in support of that position.
The point is surely that the Australians were taking advantage of a misunderstanding - Bairstow was under the impression that it was over as the umpire started to move. He even tapped in to declare himself "safe" before moving out of his crease.
To take advantage of an opponent like this is hardly the act of a gentleman. It takes no skill to break an unguarded wicket from a few yards away when an opponent has stopped playing.
Anonymous: The Australian keeper threw at the stumps as soon as he had taken the ball, so if Bairstow thought it was dead he simply wasn't paying attention.
Nor did he tap in with his bat: he just scuffed at the crease with his foot as he left it. (He was in his crease when the keeper threw the ball, but not by the time it hit the stumps.)
And it does take skill for a keeper standing back to throw down the wicket, as Bairstow himself discovered when he tried to dismiss Marnus Labuschagne in the same way earlier in match, only to miss.
Was Bairstow actually aiming at the wicket? He surely threw it wide in order to "show the ball" to the Aussies as a warning? Even the 60 year old keeper in my village team can hit the unguarded stumps at that range...
No one seriously believes Bairstow was attempting a run. Whether he tapped in or took a step back is immaterial - he marked the crease as the ball went into the keepers hands. At that point sensible people would view the ball as dead. To try to take advantage of an opponent who believes an over has been called is a fairly low trick. It is certainly not how I was brought up to play the game.
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