Ravichandran Ashwin bowled an absolute beauty on the final ball of his second over on day 2 to dismiss Ben Stokes. But the wicket was highly controversial as it needed the DRS to judge the decision. Stokes tried to defend Ashwin’s delivery and seemed to have got a faint edge which hit the wicket keeper and went up in the air. Virat Kohli, the Indian skipper took an excellent catch diving forward but the umpire was unhappy with what he could see. There was no doubt that it was a legal delivery as Virat Kohli went upstairs to review the decision.
The third umpire C Shamsuddin had a look at an ultra edge which showed a spike when the ball passed the bat. But the spike did not look decisive as it could also have been the sound of the bat hitting the ground which happened at the same time as the ball passing the bat. Third umpire Shamsuddin, however, was convinced with the spike on the ultra edge and asked the on-field umpire to reverse the decision to out.
The ball also clipped Stoke’s pad and he could have been leg before also though the review showed that the ball had pitched just outside leg. Ben Stokes was angered by the third umpire’s decision as he thought that the sound produced was the bat hitting the ground. Ashwin meanwhile picked up his 7th five wicket haul in Tests. Although it was a controversial decision which was given in the bowlers’ favour it should have gone the other way considering the amount of doubt there was with the bat hitting the ground at the same time.
Watch the video of this controversial decision here – Ben Stokes dismissed controversially !