Stuart Broad was content to give Steve Smith “the benefit of the doubt” after his run-out reprieve left England and Australia neck and neck after day two of the fifth Ashes Test.
Substitute fielder George Ealham, the 21-year-old son of former England all-rounder Mark, came close to swinging things decisively in the home side’s favour when he produced a lightning fast gather and throw to leave Smith scrambling.
Memories of former Australia skipper Ricky Ponting having his stumps thrown down by Gary Pratt 18 years ago came flooding back, but Smith was spared that fate as replays cast doubt over the role of wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow.
He appeared to nudge a bail loose with his arm before gathering the ball and completing the run out, leading TV umpire Nitin Menon to spare Smith on 44. Australia added exactly 100 runs for three wickets after the incident, finishing 295 all out and 12 runs in front.
The decision did not go down well with the majority of the sold-out Kia Oval crowd, but Broad admitted his own grasp of the technicalities was imperfect and accepted the verdict.
“I don’t know the rules to be honest. I think there was enough grey area to give that not out,” he said.
“What are the rules? Was it the right decision? It looked like benefit of the doubt sort of stuff. The first angle I saw I thought ‘out’ and then with the side angle it looked like the bails probably dislodged.”
Broad’s bowling partner James Anderson also sought to take any heat out of the umpires’ call, telling BBC Sport: “It felt like one of those where Australia think it’s not out and we thought it was out.
“I’ve not had a proper look on the TV, but it felt like a very close decision. We have to trust that the third umpire knows what he’s doing and got the decision right.”
Smith, who top-scored with 71, accepted his near miss but doffed his cap in Ealham’s direction after admitting the Surrey second teamer had caught him unawares with his rapid response.
“It was pretty tight, but when I looked the second time it looked like Jonny might have knocked the bail before the ball came in,” he said.
“It looked a close one but it got given not out, didn’t it? He was quick! I know now he’s very quick.
“The next one we hit out there we kind of pushed and he was haring round the boundary, coming in at pace. Had I known that previously, I might have just stayed there for the single.”
England will begin their second innings on Saturday morning, with barely anything to separate the sides as an enthralling series enters its final chapter.
There have been two distinct styles on show, with England scoring at a rampant rate 5.17 across less than 55 overs and Australia taking almost twice as long to get their runs at 2.85.
The tourists have already retained the urn with a 2-1 lead, but both teams have a viable route to victory as they look to finish the series on a high.
“It’s going to be another cracker, I think. Both teams played pretty different on it but pretty successfully,” Broad said.
“At one stage when Smith was nearly run out we thought we could get a pretty decent lead, but the Aussies battled pretty hard there and I think it’s just set up to be a cracking game again. That is the way the Aussies play, they try to see off the new ball, grind you down, and see off a huge number of overs.”
Smith added: “It’s ebbed and flowed the whole way…a few of us got good starts but couldn’t go and get a big score.
“We’re 12 runs in front so it’s pretty much a one-innings game from here. One positive out of the game so far is we have put more overs into their bowlers than the 50-odd ours bowled.”
Series secured: Chase, Motie star to lead West Indies to 16-run win over South Africa in second T20I at Sabina Park
Roston Chase and Gudakesh Motie played starring roles to lead the West Indies to a 16-run win over South Africa and an unassailable 2-0 series lead at Sabina Park in Kingston on Saturday.
The hosts, after winning the toss and batting first, made an imposing 207-7 from their 20 overs on a much-improved Sabina Park pitch.
Stand-in Captain Brandon King, who stood out with a top score of 79 in the first T20I, got the ball rolling quickly on Saturday with a 13-run third over off the bowling of Anrich Nortje, who South Africa brought in for this game in place of Gerald Coetzee.
Johnson Charles, playing his 50th T20I, once again failed to make any inroads with the bat as he was first to fall, caught in the deep off the bowling of Bjorn Fortuin for seven.
Kyle Mayers joined the skipper and the pair brought the score up to 51-1 at the end of the first powerplay with King 35* off 20 balls and looking set for another big one and Mayers on nine from seven balls.
Unfortunately for the hosts and the Sabina Park crowd, King’s knock didn’t last much longer as he became the first T20I wicket for debutant Nqaba Peter when he was caught at long on for 36 in the seventh over.
Peter got his second wicket not long after when Mayers, after hitting a six the ball before, became the third West Indies batsman to get out caught in the deep. He made a 16-ball 32 including two fours and three sixes. The score at the time of his wicket was 83-3 with one ball left in the ninth over.
At the halfway point, the hosts were 88-3 with Roston Chase and Andre Fletcher at the crease on 10 and three, respectively.
The pair then batted beautifully to put on a further 56 in short time before Fletcher fell for 29 to leave the West Indies 139-4 with five overs left.
Not long after, Chase brought up an excellent maiden T20I fifty with a flat six over mid-wicket off Lungi Ngidi in the 17th over. His milestone came off 30 balls.
The 19th over proved to be the most crucial for the West Indies as a trio of sixes from Romario Shepherd brought the score past the 200 mark before he fell off the last ball of that over for 26 off just 13 balls.
In the end, Chase finished 67* off just 38 balls including seven fours and two sixes.
Peter was the pick of the South African bowlers with 2-32 from his four overs while Ngidi and Andile Phehlukwayo took 2-41 and 2-51 from their respective four over spells.
The start from South Africa then had Sabina Park silent as openers Reeza Hendricks and Quinton De Kock absolutely hammered the West Indian bowling around the park on the way to an opening partnership of 81 in the first five overs.
The last ball of that fifth over proved to be the start of the West Indian fightback as De Kock took one risk too many and was bowled by Akeal Hosein for 41 off just 17 balls including four fours and as many sixes.
Three balls later, one became two for the Windies as Reeza Hendricks, who made 87 in the first game on Thursday, was dismissed by Chase for 34 to leave the tourists 83-2 at the halfway point of the sixth over.
Ryan Rickelton and Matthew Breetzke then added a further 30 before the latter went for an ill-advised second run and was run out thanks to a brilliant throw from the deep mid-wicket boundary by Shamar Joseph for 12 off the penultimate ball of the 10th over.
Rickelton was next to go, caught off the bowling of Romario Shepherd for 19 to leave the score at 124-4 off 12 overs.
Not long after, Andile Phehlukwayo fell to another brilliant piece of fielding from Joseph, this time a catch in the deep off the bowling of Gudakesh Motie for three to leave the South Africans reeling at 138-5 in the 15th over.
Any chance South Africa had of pulling off the chase was dashed when Gudakesh Motie dismissed both Rassie Van Der Dussen (30) and Wiaan Mulder (9) in the 17th over.
In the end, South Africa reached 191-7 from their 20 overs, 16 runs short of their target.
Motie ended with 3-22 from his four overs while Shepherd bowled a crucial spell with 1-21 from his four.
Chase, who was named man of the match, completed a fine all-round performance with 1-26 from his four overs.
Chase says the team has eyes on a series sweep.
“Obviously we’ve started the series well being 2-0 up but three is better than two. I just think it’s for us to look at some of the areas where we were weak today and plan to execute them better tomorrow and improve on the areas we did well in as well,” he said.
“The guys have been playing some good cricket, we just had a camp in Antigua and we’ve put in a lot of hard work so it’s just for us to come out and execute and mostly, enjoy the cricket. I think once you go out there to enjoy the cricket, it becomes a lot easier and takes a bit of pressure off of you so it’s just to go out there and have fun,” he added.
The third T20I is set for Sunday.
Archer back with a bang and Buttler stars as England beat Pakistan
England claimed a 23-run over Pakistan in Saturday's T20I at Edgbaston, with the returning Jofra Archer taking two wickets.
Making his first England appearance in over a year, paceman Archer dismissed Azam Khan and Imad Wasim as Pakistan were bowled out for 160 while chasing 184.
England captain Jos Buttler was the star of the show in Birmingham, plundering 84 off 54 balls to set the tone for the hosts' innings.
Will Jacks chipped in with a useful 37 before he, like Buttler, was caught out by Shadab Khan from Haris Rauf's bowling.
Shaheen Shah Afridi (3-36) stopped Jonny Bairstow, Moeen Ali or Chris Jordan from getting going, but Archer came in to hit a four and a six to get England to 183-7.
Pakistan were two down within four overs of their chase, and after Babar Azam (32) and Fakhar Zaman (45) were dismissed by Moeen and Liam Livingstone respectively, their chances looked increasingly slim.
Having taken out Azam, Archer (2-28) ended Wasim's stand at 22, with Reece Topley (3-41) and Jordan (1-31) finishing the job for England.
The series now moves to Cardiff, with the final match taking place at The Oval on Thursday.
Data Debrief: Buttler at his best
Buttler may well have to miss part of the upcoming T20 World Cup due to the birth of his third child, and England will be hoping their skipper makes a swift return to action if that is indeed the case.
His knock, which included eight fours and three sixes, marked the second-highest score by an England captain in a T20I, behind Eoin Morgan's 91 against New Zealand in 2019.
Matthews eyes continued growth as Windies Women build towards T20 World Cup in October
While all the excitement is rightly around the upcoming ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, West Indies Women’s captain Hayley Matthews and her team are steadily building towards their own global T20 showpiece, which is scheduled for October.
Having lifted their first and only T20 World Cup title in 2016 when they defeated favourites Australia by eight wickets in Kolkata, Matthews, who was 18 years old at the time of that accomplishment, is hoping to repeat the feat in five months time, but for now, her immediate focus is on their build up to the tournament.
The Caribbean women are set to tour Sri Lanka for three One-Day Internationals and three Twenty20 Internationals, from June 15-28, and those encounters Matthews said will kick start their preparation for the Women’s T20 World Cup to be staged in Bangladesh.
This upcoming tour follows the West Indies Women’s successful outing in Pakistan where they won both the ODI and T20 series, losing just one of eight matches played.
“Everyone would have had a nice month or so at home, so it’s about getting ourselves into tip top shape before we head off for a camp in Sri Lanka before the series,” Matthews told Barbados TODAY, shortly after a presentation to the Barbados Royals Girls Cricket Club at Friendship.
“(Winning) the T20 World Cup is probably the main goal for the year, but at the same time on the Sri Lanka tour, we have ICC Championship points to play for that would help our qualification for the 50-over World Cup next year. So I think that both the 50-over and the T20 aspects of this upcoming tour are going to be pretty serious and we’re going to want to do really well in both the formats,” she added.
Hayley Matthews engage a member of the Barbados Royals Girl Cricket Club in practice. (Photo: Haroon Greenidge)
On a more personal note, Matthews, 26, expressed delight that her hard work behind the scenes have been bearing fruit in terms of her remarkable performances over the past year, in particular.
The Barbadian, who is currently the number one ranked women’s T20 all-rounder in the world, recently became the first female to be named Wisden’s Leading Twenty20 cricketer in 2023, following a run of eight consecutive T20 match awards, in which she averaged 88 with the bat.
Last year, in 14 T20 internationals, Matthews recorded 700 runs from 14 matches at an average of 63, and snared 19 wickets at an economy rate of 6.84. Across men’s and women’s T20 – domestic and international – her tally of 1,551 runs was topped only by England’s Jos Buttler.
But, amidst all the accolades, Matthews is eyeing further improvements for the remainder of the year and beyond.
“I am truly grateful. From the time I was 10 years old I knew I wanted to be a professional cricketer, and anytime you set out those dreams and want to do something so big, when success comes you’re obviously really grateful for it. Hopefully I can continue to grow, get better and have an even better 2024,” she shared.
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