When we returned from Chawton last night, the party across the road was in full swing. When Abba started playing, we thought we were in for a long night. Not that it mattered. As it turned out, the party stopped at midnight with some quite loud fireworks.
The sudden noises sent Emma and Freya into a panic. They started shaking violently and getting as close to me as they could. Their distress continued for quite a while. This impacted on my sleep. I was therefore quite tired today.
Mirinda who, incidentally, didn’t hear the fireworks across the road, was off to have lunch with Sophie, hoping to finally get to try the cauliflower cheese at their favourite halfway pub. This meant I was free to listen to the final day of the second ashes test. And what a day it was.
20 days to go
Like the first test, the game came down to the wire. Then the most extraordinary thing happened.
Jonny Bairstow was at bat. It was the final ball of the over. The ball went past him into the keeper’s gloves. Bairstow walked out of his crease. The Australian keeper, Carey, under armed the ball into the stumps. Bairstow was out, stumped.
The England team claimed the ball was dead but the umpire had not called over and, as far as the Aussies were concerned, the ball was very much alive. The general consensus in the TMS commentary box was that Bairstow had a dozy moment.
That’s all fine, and the stumping was correct as far as the laws of the game are concerned. Bairstow was out. However, an uproar was created because, the English claimed, the Australian team broke the spirit of the game. As Mirinda said later, it just wasn’t cricket.
There were an awful lot of claims that Australia had cheated. Again. Maybe Cummins should have called Bairstow back, in a fit of magnanimous sportsmanship, but he didn’t. There’s an excellent piece from Jonathan Agnew here.
The incident had two major effects. Firstly, it spurred Ben Stokes on. In a fit of pique, he started hitting sixes everywhere in some really exciting cricket and, secondly, it caused a bit of a furore in the Long Room at Lords. The furore was enough to make the MCC issue the following statement.
“The Long Room is unique in world cricket and the great privilege of players passing through the pavilion is very special. After this morning’s play, emotions were running high, and words were unfortunately exchanged with some of the Australian team, by a small number of members. We have unreservedly apologised to the Australian team and will deal with any member who has not maintained the standard we expect through our disciplinary processes. It was not necessary to eject anyone from the ground and I am pleased to say that there was no repeat of this as the players resumed the field for this afternoon’s session.”
Apparently, three members of the MCC were reprimanded.
It seems that unsportsmanlike behaviour is okay for the English, just not for Australians.
