Follow UsWith Australia struggling at 193/7, they really needed all luck to be on their side when Steve Smith seemingly was found ‘short’ of his crease while attempting to rob a double. Substitute fielder George Ealham, who was in the deep boundary, ran across like Usain Bolt produced a near-perfect throw to catch Smith miles out of his crease.
But then multiple frames suggested Jonny Bairstow did not dislodge the bail cleanly with the ball, leading to a lengthy review. At the end of it, Smith was adjudged not out, as the frames suggested that Bairstow had dislodged the bail partly before he collected the ball. It ended with the crowd booing the third umpire, Nitin Menon.
However, England’s pacer Stuart Broad backed Menon’s decision and also insisted that there was ‘enough grey area’ for that run-out to be given in Australia’s favour.
"I honestly don't know the rules," Broad said. "I think there was enough grey area to give that not out. It looked like benefit of the doubt sort of stuff, first angle I saw I thought out, and then the side angle it looked like the bails probably dislodged.
But confusingly enough, on-field umpire Kumar Dharmasena had walked down to Broad and revealed that had zing bails been in play, the decision would have been given out.
"Kumar said to me if it was zing bails it would been given out, I don't really understand the reasoning why."
Broad, earlier in the day, had switched the bails around when Marnus Labuschagne was going strong, and just a delivery later, the Australian batter got out to Mark Wood, after setting up shop nearly in the first two hours of play on day two.
"But we'd had a few play-and-misses in the morning session and we needed to make a breakthrough, and I thought I'd have a little change of the bails," Broad said on the bails swap.
"Marnus is someone who would notice everything so he took notice of it, and I think Uzzie said something to him like 'I've seen someone do that before'," he added.
On the other hand, Australia’s top run-scorer Steve Smith was seen walking back to the dressing room. But the second replay ensured that Smith stood his ground, with Bairstow’s over-eagerness costing England a crucial wicket.
"I saw the initial replay and saw the bail come up, and when I looked at it the second time looked like Jonny might have knocked the bail before the ball had come," he said. "Looked pretty close at that stage, if the ball had hit at the initial stage when the bail came then think I was well out of my ground,” Smith said.
Smith could have joined Ricky Ponting in that group, where substitute fielders turned into English folklore. Gary Pratt in the 2005 Ashes ran out Ponting, coming in as a substitute fielder, and Mark Ealham’s son, George, could have been on the same page.
"I know now that he's very quick," he said. "The next one we hit out there when it was a similar push for two, I was like, gee, this guy's tearing around the boundary, he's coming at pace. Had I known that previously I might have just stayed there for the single."
While Smith’s innings was one of pure class, he attempted a rare poor shot when he was on 71, attempting to pull Chris Woakes for a six with Australia still trailing in the game. Smith agreed that he might have pulled the trigger too early but reckoned that his dismissal allowed Todd Murphy to play an innings of a lifetime, where he hit Mark Wood for three sixes.
"Did I pull the trigger too early? Maybe," Smith said. "But had I not got out, Murph might not have come in and smacked 30 like he did. We are in the position we are because of our batters, you can't fault what the bottom few did. Thought the partnerships they put together were outstanding.