You can always rely on a fair helping of controversy when England are in the sub-continent and no sooner had a few pitch arguments from the second Test died down than there were more reasons for fans on both sides to get irate.
First of all Ben Stokes claimed a catch when Shubman Gill’s edge was found by Stuart Broad with the opener still to score. There seemed something not altogether right about Stokes’ movement as he took it at second slip and our own commentator Gary Naylor called it not out on first viewing.
However, Chettihody Shamshuddin, the third umpire, ruled in favour of the batsman with unseemly haste, relying on one angle in direct contrast to the care he took when Jack Leach stood his ground after seemingly being caught at gully earlier in the day. A later attempted stumping of Rohit Sharma again looked not out from side-on but England argued with the on-pitch umpire that his colleague in the shed should have had a look from the stump-cam, if not several other angles.
Anyway, the arguments for and against will no doubt take up much space on the back pages in the morning, but we have decided to let you have your say with a selection of tweets on the above subjects and others that took our fancy during the day.
Did your tweet make it?
On Stokes’ “catch”
If that ball wasn’t grounded I don’t know what a grounded catch looks like.
— Anindya Dutta #AdvantageIndia (@Cric_Writer) February 24, 2021
@guerillacricket That is not out any day of the week. The ball noticeably bounced and dragged across the surface. #INDvENG
— 💩🔥🐨 🦠😷imagine (@sallyr56) February 24, 2021
Stokes had the fucking gall to be smiling when he dropped the ball as though it wasn’t me who dropped it but the third umpire – tosser…
— Oxymoroniker (@Jolywood) February 24, 2021
@guerillacricket How about a soft signal of incompetence?
— barry goodman (@bigsexybarry) February 24, 2021
I don’t think that out, but how did he make the decision in like 3 seconds without even looking at another angle @guerillacricket
— Lawrence Jamieson (@LawrenceJamies5) February 24, 2021
On Foakes’ “stumping” of Rohit
@guerillacricket At the time the bails lit up Rohit’s shoe was being bent forward, which is only possible if he was grounded.
Case closed.#INDvENG
— Lea, Outside Context Problem (@LinuxLea) February 24, 2021
Well I mean that’s not true. Pop your shoes on and bend your toes upwards. You’ll get exactly the same shape on your shoe as Rohit did there. In all probability, it may have been out but really ought to be checking more angles.
— Andrew Watson (@Andy261286) February 24, 2021
Two Tests running we’ve had inexperienced TV umpires not using the tools available & making the right decisions by accident.
This is exactly why neutral umpires were introduced, to avoid accusations of bias every time an umpire messes up.#INDvENG🏏🇮🇳🏴#WTC21@guerillacricket
— Nakul Pande (@NakulMPande) February 24, 2021
@guerillacricket I would totally understand it if Root does a Michael Holding kicking the stumps impression now.
— Nitin Bajaj (@NitinBajaj) February 24, 2021
How many angles do you need he was in! So if 4 cameras give it in and 1 is out then does the 1 overrule don’t think so
— Gurjit Aujla (@JattPanjabi) February 24, 2021
Random Tweets we liked
@guerillacricket Crawley’s long sleeves barely make it to his forearms. I know he’s tall but surely the ECB budget can *stretch* to a bigger shirt size
— Anna Forsyth (@aforsyth03) February 24, 2021
@guerillacricket Surely it is premature to announce which ankle Jimmy hurt until you have viewed multiple replays.
— Jeff Perkins (@JeffPerkins12) February 24, 2021
@guerillacricket Jofra to long handle a few and score a 50 in a jiffy. A Jifty.
— Nitin Bajaj (@NitinBajaj) February 24, 2021
@guerillacricket this may be a contentious question but… are you likely to cover the Hundred?!
— Mog (@Mog7734) February 24, 2021
