ENG vs IND | Twitter amused as Stokes fails to contain excitement after getting ball change approved
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Test cricket is all about the small victories -- a play and miss, the inside edge onto the pads, an authoritative cover drive, and most recently, a change in the Dukes ball. England were fighting the latter for a long while on Day 1 at Edgbaston and were thrilled when they finally won.
Indian batters looked increasingly comfortable at the crease on Day 1 in Birmingham as the sun beating down made conditions ideal for run scoring. Even though there was some seam movement off the deck, the likes of Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill barely looked bothered as thescore read 182/3 when Tea was called with 53 overs bowled in the day. Gill continued to cruise when play resumed while Rishabh Pant, who had arrived shortly before the break, quickly joined his skipper in making the scorecard tick to further induce pressure on the visitors. However, Ben Stokes and his men had a plan ready to change the course of play, and the captain could not believe it when the tactic actually worked.
Just two overs into the third session's play, Ollie Pope walked up to the umpires with the ball in hand midway through Chris Woakes' over. A request to take the Dukes through the ball measuring hoop followed, a procedure that had been carried out multiple times already through the day but with no reward. Yet, to the amusement of even the officials, the Dukes did get stuck in the hope this time around forcing a box of replacements to be called onto the ground. As soon as the umpires made the gesture, Stokes offered his deputy Pope a booming handshake before unsuccessfully attempting to hide a fit of giggles that followed.
Woakes, meanwhile, looked equally ecstatic as smiles spread all around the England camp and soon enough the hosts managed to scalp two quick wickets to capitalize on the opportunity. Twitterati was amused by it all, to say the least.
That was cheeky!
— BavumaTheKing Temba (@bavumathek83578)
LOL!
England finally getting the ball changed…
— England's Barmy Army 🏴🎺 (@TheBarmyArmy)
Yes it is!
India cooking, so England switch from swing to sorcery with a cheeky little ball change. Textbook dark arts 😂
— Mzamo (@city_wana)
Things gonna change!
ball change ❤️
— yus S. ekser (@gtanpcfr)
Very much needed for England!
Ball change
— Gladiator (@johnsmithMA)
OHH!
England are gonna do a oval 2023 ball change and someone is gonna blow up dukes factory
— random tom (@enigma303030)
No comments on this!
England Cricket: Make rubbish pitches and beg the umpires for a ball change. ICC should actually have a look into the awful pitch being prepared in England.
— Melroy (@me7roy)
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