Michael Vaughan admits England 'cheated' in Manchester Test after Angelo Mathews' explosive accusations

Former England National Cricket Team player Michael Vaughan came up with a blunt statement after Sri Lanka National Cricket Team batter Angelo Mathews touted the ball change as the reason behind the team's loss in the first Test. He said that it's a good tactic and that more teams should try it.

England National Cricket Team emerged victorious in the first game against the Sri Lanka National Cricket Team. But after that veteran Angelo Mathews accused the hosts of cheating, saying that the replacement ball did the trick for the Ollie Pope-led side.

During the third day of the Old Trafford Test, umpires allowed the England team a replacement ball. This came after the 41st over of Sri Lanka's second inning when they were batting well at 146 for 4, with a lead of 24, along with Angelo Mathews not out on 59 and Kamindu Mendis on 33.

The change in the ball tilted the momentum as the replacement ball had produced a lot of moments and troubled the batters. This also provided England with the wicket of Angelo Matthews and then they couldn't post a big target and then went on to lose the match.

Michael Vaughan while talking about the ball change tactic, stated that it's a great move. He talked about how England has been using his method for a while and revealed that it started in 2019. Speaking on the Club Prairie Fire podcast, he explained:

"A great mention for England once again, that tactical genius move that they changed the ball. After 42 overs, starts to get a bit soft. Angelo Matthew has played great, and is full of control, the ball's not doing well, well it's not even moving a millimeter.

"And you get the ball changed don't you, it's out of shape and suddenly England gets a nice fresh one and it starts to swing around. They've done it before, I can't remember when, but it's starting to become a clever maneuver in the UK.

"I think it was Michael Burns who was the fourth, I think it's the fourth umpire that brings the boxes out. He brought one box out and they were deemed right to obviously change the ball that they're changing.

"So another box came out and they got this ball, well it was a beauty. It was heaping everywhere, I mean can you believe it? I don't know, is it never a ball change out anywhere else in the world? Generally speaking elsewhere in the world when they change a ball they get one of the same age or one that looks the same," said Michael Vaughan

It's good stuff, I'm surprised more teams don't try it - Michael Vaughan on ball replacement tactic

Michael Vaughan further while talking about the same said that changing the ball is a good tactic as there are rare chances that the replacement ball will be worse. He stressed that more teams should try and use this. He elaborated:

"Well from my recollection and even when I was, very rarely do you change the ball and get a worse ball. Very rarely do you get a ball that's a lot of lot worse than the ball that you're swapping for?" questioned Michael Vaughan.

"What they've done is they've gone back over the years and obviously these balls have been used before to a similar kind of age.

"I think what England have done is go and look back in the footage of the last five years and kind of looked at teams who have blocked the shit out of it for 42 overs so the ball is 42 overs old but they haven't hit it.

"It's good stuff, I'm surprised more teams don't try it," Michael Vaughan concluded.