Ashes 2023: Was Jonny Bairstow’s dismissal fair or in line with the spirit of the game?

As Jonny Bairstow dived under a Green bouncer to conclude the 52nd over, Australian wicketkeeper Alex Carey promptly threw the ball back at the stumps, despite the fact that Bairstow had not yet left his crease.

Bairstow was already well outside of his area when the ball broke the stumps.

“I was asking the umpires if they had called ‘over,’ they were saying ‘no,’ but then the square leg umpire and the standing umpire both made movements towards it being the end of the over,” Stokes said after the game.

What happened next in the Long Room?

Confusion reigned at Lord’s at first. As the verdict was handed upstairs to the third umpire, the audience fell silent, but booing began as replays were presented on the big screen and only grew louder as the dismissal was confirmed.

For the final half-hour of the morning session, they echoed across the Home of Cricket, intermingled with enormous, guttural roars in response to Stokes regularly smashing the Australian attack for six.

Then, when the players made their way through the Long Room for the lunch break, Australian pair David Warner and Usman Khawaja seemed to engage in a brawl with MCC members in some of Lord’s most controversial scenes.

Was Jonny Bairstow’s dismissal fair or in line with the spirit of the game?

England also objected to the wicket being on the last ball of the over, however the rule for calling over depends on the calling of a dead ball on the sixth ball of the over. According to law 20.3: “Until the ball is dead, neither the call of Over (see law 17.4) nor the call of Time (see law 12.2) shall be made.”

All of the laws made it plain that the Australians and Carey, who had no doubt seen Bairstow make the identical mistake before, were perfectly legal in dismissing him for his lack of attention to the game circumstances. The fact that it was a heads-up play by the Australian wicket-keeper and accurately handled by the on-field and TV umpires is secondary to whether it was within the spirit of the game or an ethical type of dismissal.

Also Read: Know which Ashes series champions have bounced back from a 2-0 deficit to secure victory (cricfiles.com)