England, Australia Captains Have Contradicting Views On Bairstow’s Runout

London [UK]: Australia skipper Pat Cummins and England skipper Ben Stokes shared opposing views on Jonny Bairstow’s debatable run out on Day 5 of the second Test match of the Ashes 2023 series on Sunday.

On the final day of an absorbing Test match between Australia and England, there were two deciding moments of the game. Stoke’s wicket was one while the second one was Carey’s direct hit to dismiss Bairstow. Bairstow left the final ball of Cameron Green’s over alone to the wicketkeeper and started walking outside the crease assuming the ball was dead.

However, an alert Carey realised there was an opportunity to run the batter out and effected a directed hit at the striker’s end to catch Bairstow well short.

England’s skipper didn’t fail to express his displeasure over the entire incident in the post-match presentation.

“I am not disputing the fact it is out because it is out. If the shoe was on the other foot I would have put more pressure on the umpires and asked whether they had called over and had a deep think about the whole spirit of the game and would I want to do something like that,” Stokes said

“For Australia, it was the match-winning moment. Would I want to win a game in that manner? The answer for me is no,” Stokes added.

Cummins on the other hand had a different thought about the entire incident.

“I think [Alex] Carey saw it happen a few balls previous. There was no pause. Catch it, straight away, have a throw at the stumps. I thought it was totally fair play. That’s how the rule is. I know some people might disagree. Just like the catch yesterday, the rule is there. That’s how I saw it,” Cummins said in the post-match presentation.

With this win, Australia are 2-0 up in the five-match series.