Had Dhoni decided to stick with his appeal, I doubt if the course of the match would have been vastly different, but the rest of the tour would have been in even more of a mess than now appears to be the case.

India brought this upon themselves by appealing in the first place and then through Dhoni withdrawing that appeal. This fact has been neatly overlooked among many.

All of that said, Dhoni still could, and should, have said no. This isn’t one of those friendly church picnic test series, and arguably the performance after tea, when India wilted spectacularly, has cost them the series.

And yes, as I discussed on my twitter yesterday, English booing is one of the sporting world’s most terrifying sounds.

1) Bell clearly assumed the ball had gone for four, probably by seeing the body language of the fielder at the boundary and possibly the trajectory of the ball which may have looked from where he was watching as if it was running along the boundary, judging by the direction he was looking as he put his bat down at the end of his third run.

2) The fielder (Kumar?) seemed to have assumed / resigned himself to the notion that the ball had hit the boundary as he was himself falling over it. That’s perhaps an understandable assumption to make, given where the ball ended up.That would explain his relaxed body language as he returned the ball to the wicket. Unfortunately, that also may have helped convince Bell that it must have gone for four.

However, other individuals correctly didn’t make any such assumptions. The umpires couldn’t, and didn’t – four was never signalled. Over was not called, tea was never announced.

Some of the Indian fielders also did not assume it had gone for four, precisely because they couldn’t be certain and were perhaps more conscious of that possibility that it hadn’t given they had an interest in it not going for four.

If Bell and Morgan had carried on running, they could have run five. Put the pressure on the fielders (which they should have been doing anyway, given the fine balance the game was in at that point in time). But they didn’t. Instead, Bell was thinking more about getting in for his sandwiches than getting runs for England.

And then, whilst he was getting his sandwiches, England have the temerity to approach the Indian team to ask them to review their appeal. How on earth is that in the spirit of the game? “Come on chaps, we all make mistakes, why not let us off this one, in a game where we could go on to get the 2-0 lead we need to replace you guys as world #1?”. Grossly unfair of us to put Dhoni in that position, regardless of the discomfort about the incident that was already felt in the Indian Dressing room.

And why were the Indians feeling so uncomfortable? THe aggressive English crowd, I would wager. The notion of the England fans making the atmosphere so hostile that they have effectively influenced balanced decision-making by the Indian team is also in contrast with ‘the spirit of the game’. Yes, it must have been confusing for the crowd (let’s face it, if the international players on the pitch were unsure what had happened, Joe Public could be excused for the same), but there’s a difference between expressing confusion over a decision and outright hostility and booing. That’s not cricket.

England should have accepted what happened with good grace and learned from the lesson, rather than allowing our status as home team to bring influence to bear on the outcome. The final opportunity for us to come out of this with our integrity in tact would have been for Bell to break his wicket on the first ball after tea. He didn’t. Instead, he waved to the crowd when he made his 150, even smiling to himself. I for one feel uncomfortable about the incident, and I don’t think the right decision was made for the spirit of the game.

I’m a huge Prosper Utseya fan. If he was from a major test nation, he would get a lot more recognition for his bowling (ODI economy rate of 4.18!!) Somehow managed to remain relentlessly positive through some very difficult times for Zim cricket.

maybe that was the point.

And wow, l hadn’t realised education had made it’s way down to sussex!

Maybe if you had a bit more about you pip, you too could have followed Mr Shankar and as he did and got himself in the IPL auction and a major bat contract!

Seems like he has made a fool out of many, and a mug out of the likes of you because you cant read and don’t understand the full story!

Shall l send you a donation so you can escape sussex for the day and see the big wide world…will mommy let you!

I’m fully aware of the Lancashire contract, but they at least had the sense to try him in their seconds before letting him loose against proper bowlers.

I’m not sure what your point about Cambridge is though, even a retard like me could get a game for them.