Pakistan's Handling Of The Ball Makes England Angry

England, on Monday, suffered an unexpected 14-run loss at the hands of Pakistan at Trent Bridge. Not many had given Pakistan even an outside chance of beating the hosts and the world number one ODI side. However, the world once again witnessed Pakistan’s unpredictable tag as they stunned their fancied opponents to bring their campaign on track.

Asked to bat first, Pakistan posted a mammoth total of 348 for 8. The innings was studded with 29 fours and six sixes. Veteran batsman Mohammad Hafeez was his side’s top scorer with 84 off 62 balls. Babar Azam and skipper Sarfaraz Ahmed contributed well too, scoring 63 and 55 respectively.

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In reply, England lost wickets at regular intervals at start. They were reeling at 118 for 4 with Jason Roy, Jonny Bairstow, Eoin Morgan and Ben Stokes back in the pavilion. Joe Root and Jos Buttler then scored centuries to bring the chase on track but failed to take their team over the line. England eventually finished on 334 for 9.

And while the hosts will be ruing the loss, they were also angry with the way Pakistan handled the ball. In fact, the on-field umpires were seen talking to both the teams for the way they handled the ball. Both England and Pakistan were told off by the umpires for throwing the ball into the wicket-keeper on the bounce, a tactic often used to scuff up the ball and extract reverse swing.

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The England players had a frustrating day at the office. They were poor on the field and did not refrain from venting their frustration when they saw their opposition players trying to change the state of the ball. Buttler, in fact, also looked to inspect the ball after he was out for 103 and was shown it at one point by the umpires.

“There were discussions throughout the whole of the two innings. The umpires came to me, mid-innings, and seemed to think that we were throwing the ball in on the bounce too much or it was being over exaggerated,” said England captain Eoin Morgan.

“They emphasised it would be the same for both. It was really about us then… that conversations that were stopping the game were that Pakistan were doing the same thing. Jos was just intrigued to see the ball. When the ball is hit against the LED advertising boards it does scuff it up quite a lot so we he was just interested to see if one side was tougher than the other, natural or unnatural,” he added.

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Root, on the other hand, declined to comment on the issue, saying:

“I’m not going to get involved or I’ll only get myself in trouble.”

England will next play Bangladesh as they will be looking to get back to winning ways.