England was defeated by 8 wickets in their first T20 match against India on Wednesday at Old Trafford. After the loss, David Willey questioned the tactics used by Indian bowlers (Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Kuldeep Yadav). The duo, Kumar and Yadav, apparently stop right at the end of their delivery strides, which Willey claims is “against the spirit of the game”.
Hales and Butler complained about this tactic to the umpire when Yadav repeated the same for the second time in the 10th over. He said that as Yadav was aborting his delivery in the last moment, he was getting the hint of what shot Buttler was about to play. In the last over of England’s innings, Bhuvneshwar Kumar did the same thing – he aborted his run-up while the batsman was halfway through his shot.
— Utkarsh Bhatla (@UtkarshBhatla) July 3, 2018
While addressing the media, David Willey said “I think he [Bhuvneshwar] was looking to see what I was going to do. They did that a few times. The spinners did it a couple of times. I’m not sure what the rules are on that. I don’t particularly like it. I don’t think it is necessarily in the spirit of cricket. It’s not my job to comment on that too much on what they should or shouldn’t be doing. Personally, I don’t think I’d do that. I don’t think it is great.”
After Willey’s allegations, KL Rahul (who scored an unbeaten 101 runs in the first T20I against England) came in to defend his teammates by saying that although this “tactic” used by Indian bowlers will frustrate him too, but the margin for error for bowlers in T20 cricket is very little so coming up with these “tactics” are only fair.
Not just KL Rahul, fans also came out in support for the Indian bowlers and even counter-questioned David Willey, asking whether the batsman’s moving in his crease to unsettle the bowler was within the “spirit of game”.
@david_willey he already warned the non striker twice I guess… Don’t show you frustration on losing a match… Be a sport man…
— jaydeep patel (@dr_jaydeep88) July 6, 2018
Stop Funfunning like a kid and be a man! Our bowlers never complained about the last minute movement by your batsmen like you doing to our bowlers. It is a “Gentle MEN’S” game bacche! #KID @david_willey
— Vipul (@009_vipul) July 6, 2018
101 Silly Excuses to not concentrate on cricket- upcoming book by David Willey
— Sagar (@SK171999) July 6, 2018
Lol…check out your history, your whole country is against any kind of spirit
— Imagineer (@singhghanshyam) July 6, 2018
They were out of minds when Kuldeep got 3 wickets in an over..there was frustration on every one except Buttler & Eoin so this statement was expected
— Sumit (@Sumit991005) July 6, 2018
I just wanna say to David Willey ” look who’s talking”
Englishmen are famous for time wasting tactics in test cricket. Is that in the spirit of cricket???— Kushal Gautam (@iTsKVG19) July 6, 2018
Dear david, hi just saw your message regarding indian bowlers pulling out of their stride and it did frustrate u and was not in spirit of the game, but about the batsman trying to unsettle the bowler by moving around in his crease, is that spirit of game?? @david_willey
— Dr LakshmiNarasimalu (@LNarasimalu) July 6, 2018
Lol. Mr Willey @david_willey needs to have a look at rules & should advice his fellow Englishmen not to back up too far from the bowling crease, as it is not within the spirit of the game. If they do that, breaking his run up is Within Bowlers righthttps://t.co/XdHk6qJYYv
— Saurabh Shinde (@imsgshinde) July 6, 2018
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(Written by Abhijeet Ghumman)
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