Australia captain Pat Cummins and his England counterpart Ben Stokes appeared eager to maneuver on swiftly on Sunday from a stumping incident within the second Ashes check that led to lengthy and loud booing from the Lord’s devoted.
With England on 193-5 and chasing a mammoth goal of 371, Australian wicketkeeper Alex Carey stumped Stokes’ batting associate Jonny Bairstow as he left his crease on the finish of an over.
The controversy – and the booing, and later even some abuse within the usually-staid Lord’s Long Room – was throughout whether or not the dismissal was firstly authorized and secondly throughout the spirit of the sport.
“I thought it was fair. You see Jonny (Bairstow) do it all the time, he did it on day one to David Warner, he did it in 2019 to Steve (Smith),” Cummins advised reporters.
“It’s a really common thing for keepers to do if they see a batter keep leaving their crease. Cares (Carey), full credit to him, he saw the opportunity, rolled it at the stumps, Jonny left his crease. You leave the rest to the umpires.”
“It was all one motion, there was no pause or sneakiness about it. It was ‘catch, throw’ straightaway,” he stated.
Stokes was equally unimpressed by the fuss over the incident, though he added that he wouldn’t need to win in such a trend on the finish of an over, which is routinely known as by the umpires.
“The first thing that needs to be said is, it is out,” Stokes stated.
“If I was the fielding captain I would have put a lot more pressure on the umpires to ask them what their decision was around the over and around the spirit of the game and would I want to potentially win a game with something like that happening – and it would be no.”
But he stated that total he felt the sport, which Australia ultimately gained by 43 runs to take a 2-0 lead within the five-test collection, had been tight and thrilling and shouldn’t be lowered to at least one second of controversy.
“It was an unfortunate situation, but it was an incredible game and I don’t think we should be talking too much about something like that,” he stated.
Asked by one reporter whether or not there was now any danger of his males resorting to such unsportsmanlike techniques as underarm bowling, Australia’s Cummins responded wryly: “Depends how flat the wickets get – might be an option we turn to!”