At 5.18pm, the boos rung out around Lord’s, the England captain, Eoin Morgan, was shaking his head out in the middle and Ben Stokes was trudging up the pavilion steps, swinging his bat in disgust at the decision that had seen him given out for 10 by the third umpire under law 37.1: obstructing the field.
By the conclusion of the match, which saw Australia emerge victorious by 64 runs and go 2-0 up in the series, Morgan’s view of the incident had not changed either: his player, in deflecting an attempted direct hit by Mitchell Starc away from the stumps with his hand, was acting instinctively to protect his body and not his wicket.
“My interpretation of it was that his reaction wasn’t deliberate,” said Morgan. “I feel the ball was thrown so fast you can only react in a way that defends yourself. He put his hand up to protect himself and it followed the ball. How you interpret that is open but I didn’t think it was deliberate.”
In real time, this viewpoint is understandable. Starc’s throw, from halfway down the pitch, gave the batsman little time to react and Morgan confirmed the on-field umpire, Kumar Dharmasena, had given it not out on the field before his colleague in the TV booth, Joel Wilson, overturned it.
“It was a natural reaction to avoid the ball. Starc was about five yards away from Ben,” added Morgan. “The decision was made but it would have been different if we were fielding.” Asked if that meant he would have withdrawn the appeal, had he been the shoes of opposite number, Steve Smith, he replied: “Yes.”
That final comment was not met favourably by Smith, who received more jeers as he went up for the presentation ceremony, with the Home of Cricket seemingly in agreement with the England captain that the tourists should have recalled the batsman. “I think that’s a little bit disappointing, the umpires are there to do a job.” Smith said.
The Australia captain was in no mood to row back on his view of the events either, insisting Stokes knew exactly what he was doing – despite his head being turned at the point of impact – and that he would stand firm with the appeal should a similar incident occur again in future.
“It was blatantly out. It might have looked a bit worse because it went back to the bowler but it’s exactly the same as me turning for a second run, putting my arm out and stopping the ball. The ball wasn’t going to hit him, Stokes was out of his crease, he put his arm out and got in the way of the ball. The ball was going very close to hitting the stumps.
“If you’re out of your crease and you put your arm up to stop the ball, then it’s out. If you read the rule book, we’re well within our rights to appeal and the umpires have given it out. I thought it was the right decision at the time and I still think it’s the right decision.”
Smith, who confirmed Aaron Finch will be added to the squad for the remainder of the series after opener David Warner broke his thumb off the second ball of the match, said he would not seek out Morgan for peace-talks on the subject before the third one-day international at Old Trafford.
There, England will seek to end a miserable run of results against the world champions in one-day cricket, having lost 11 of their past 12 meetings in the format. Morgan has called on his young side to improve.
“We do have a lot of talent in the changing room and I’d like to see more of it,” he said. “Australia are a very disciplined and well-drilled side, they’ve been together for quite a while now and have a lot of experience in the side, they certainly outplayed us today.”
For Stokes, who will no doubt seek revenge in Tuesday’s day-nighter in Manchester, the controversy caps a mixed summer at Lord’s. His cavalier 85-ball century against New Zealand lit up the start of the season but against Australia in the 3-2 Ashes series win, he was run out in England’s second innings collapse after dozily forgetting to ground his bat.
Trevor Bayliss described his reaction on that occasion as “filthy” and, having broken a hand when punching a locker on the one-day tour of the Caribbean last year, there are no prizes for guessing his mood upon returning to the dressing room this time around.
