Jonny Bairstow‘s lack of awareness as a batsman cost him his wicket in the second innings at Lord’s, where Australia registered a 43-run victory, overcoming Ben Stokes‘ heroics, to go 2-0 up in the series.
The day was also marred with the run-out of Bairstow by Alex Carey in a cheeky fashion as the right-handed England batter trudged out of his crease before the over the declared finished and Carey hit the stumps. Jonny Bairstow initially was given run-out, which later was termed as a stumping.
While the English fans have been slamming Alex Carey for his runout actions and Aussie captain Pat Cummins for not upholding the so-called Spirit of Cricket, netizens on social media dug out a video clip from earlier of the same match where Jonny Bairstow himself had attempted such a cheeky run-out of Marnus Labuschagne in Australia’s second innings in the same Lord’s Test.
This has left the world stunned. On one hand, the English are complaining about Australia not playing in the intangible, complicated Spirit of Cricket, and on the other, Jonny Bairstow himself attempted a run-out from behind the stumps of Labuschagne. That too in the same Test match. This further raise questions that why was Jonny Bairstow so fuming after being runout when he had attempted a similar one earlier in this very game.
Watch the video of Jonny Bairstow trying to run-out Labuschagne in the same fashion as Alex Carey did:
Thought we had seen this before. Jonny Bairstow attempting to catch Marnus Labuschagne stepping out of his crease two days ago. #Ashes @wwos @9NewsAUS pic.twitter.com/U28fEvlEu8
— Sam Djodan (@samdjodan) July 2, 2023
Here’s a fan trolling England for their stance on Spirit of Cricket:
Ahahahahah…"the spirit of the game"
A rule for thee but not not for me is England's attitude…#Ashes https://t.co/YFEsKJF11c— Lost (@DavidNeyland2) July 3, 2023
Pots kettles and glass houses…. https://t.co/kRKZ4BFWF5
— Ross (@RossSymons) July 2, 2023
Meanwhile, England head coach Brendon McCullum certainly wasn’t pleased with such an effort from Carey. McCullum said that he won’t be cordial with the Aussies in the near future and that he wouldn’t have liked to do something as what Carey did. The England coach, though, conceded that by laws Bairstow was out.
“I can’t imagine we’ll be having a beer with them any time soon,” McCullum told the BBC. “In the end you’ve got to live with the decisions you make, and that’s life. But I feel from our point of view, if we were in the same situation, we might’ve made a different decision.”
“I think it was more about the spirit of the game and when you become older and more mature you realise the game and the spirit of it is something you need to protect. You have to make decisions in the moment and they can have effects on games and people’s characters. By the letter of the law he is out. Jonny was not trying to take a run and the umpires had called ‘over’.”
