Day 4 of the Lord’s Test has brought about some rivetting play in the two sessions as of now. England drew first blood and took three wickets in the first session. Since then Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane are playing with circumspect and trying to take the Indian lead further. In the meantime, a few things happened on the field which grabbed the eyeballs of the cricketing universe.
The first was the face-off between Virat Kohli and James Anderson. Both had a go at each other. It did look heated out in the middle and finally resulted with the wicket of Kohli just before lunch.
Post lunch, while India are trying to rebuild through Pujara and Rahane, the England fielders tampered with the ball. A couple of English fielders in the slip cordon tried to damage the look of the ball. The Twitterverse was quick to spot it and soon ball-tampering started to trend on Twitter.
@vikrantgupta73 @anilsingh1601 @rawatrahul9 sir, ball tampering??? Spikes shoes can damage ball much more than anything else pic.twitter.com/jpqOBO5kCJ
— Vipin Singh (@Vipinsinghst) August 15, 2021
What would you say to this scene ???? perfect day of ball tampering?? @MichaelVaughan #ENGvIND #LordsTest pic.twitter.com/TVPBhborAF
— Vipul Makwana (@rtvipulkumar) August 15, 2021
https://twitter.com/TGCricketer/status/1426908449237966848?s=20
https://twitter.com/Luke____A/status/1426907806469349376?s=20
Was the ball changed after this?#ENGvIND pic.twitter.com/cWJ7ks8va9
— Subhayan Chakraborty (@CricSubhayan) August 15, 2021
Depends If it was damaged? Exactly the same if it was hit into the stands. If it didn’t make a mark, why change it ?
— Stuart Broad (@StuartBroad8) August 15, 2021
Meanwhile, Stuart Broad came to the defense of his teammates saying that it was not a case of ball-tampering, when the Indian fans demanded the ball to be changed. While some considered it to be intentional, a few did not. Twitter was also divided over the fact if it was actually ball-tampering or not. The reaction of the Twitterverse on the same suggested that it might have been the same.
This is not the first instance of ball-tampering. The Cape Town Test between Australia and England in 2018 redefined the meaning of ball-tampering in international cricket. The reputation of Australia’s rich cricketing history was at stake along with the reputation of some of its prime players.
In this case, many were of the view that the third umpire should have changed the delivery once they were made aware of the same, It will be interesting to see what is the final decision and if the England team will be penalised with their fielders.
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