Ashes 2023: When keeper Jonny Bairstow tried to run out Marnus Labuschagne

Jonny Bairstow’s run out on Day 5 of the second Ashes Test created quite the flutter. With the England wicketkeeper-batter caught short at the striker’s end by a Australia’s keeper Alex Carey, the debate over the ‘spirit of the game’ was reignited.

Incidentally, on Day 3, Bairstow had also tried to inflict a dismissal in similar manner. However, in that situation, Marnus Labuschagne was back behind the crease in time even though Bairstow missed the stumps.

Fox Sports slammed England’s approach. “Can’t have it both ways chaps!” ran their headline. “Damning footage exposes Poms’ great Ashes hypocrisy,” it added.

Thought we had seen this before. Jonny Bairstow attempting to catch Marnus Labuschagne stepping out of his crease two days ago. #Ashes @wwos @9NewsAUS pic.twitter.com/U28fEvlEu8

— Sam Djodan (@samdjodan) July 2, 2023

On Day 5, Bairstow would duck a Cameron Green short ball, bring his foot back inside the crease to suggest being safely inside before leaving the stumps. However, the ball was not ‘dead’ since Carey had collected the ball and released towards the stumps in one quick motion.

The batter typically leaves after looking at the square-leg umpire or the opposition or when the umpire calls ‘Over’ to signify play is no longer active. However, Labuschagne hadn’t done anything similar to Bairstow or leave the crease at all.

In Bairstow’s case, main umpire Ahsan Raza was reaching out to take out the bowler’s cap, the square-leg umpire Chris Gaffaney had begun to walk towards the stumps but there was no call of ‘over’ yet. So the ball was still in play, and it was legally out.

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