Nottingham, July 31: Sharing a 162-run partnership with Kevin Pietersen and a 104-run stand with Eoin Morgan, Ian Bell and batted England back into the game scoring a vital 159 runs on Day 3.
However, his innings was not without its moments. In a bizarre turn of events, he was given run-out on the last ball before tea. After his partner Eoin Morgan flicked the ball to deep square-leg, it appeared to have touched the ropes. The fielder Praveen Kumar and both the batsmen – Morgan and Bell –assumed it was a four and by the time the throw came in from the deep to wicketkeeper MS Dhoni, both batsmen were out of their crease. The ball was collected, the bails dislodged and an appeal made by the Indian skipper. Since the umpires had still officially not called tea, Bell, who had taken three runs and was back at the non-striker’s end with Morgan, was given out.
After the end of day’s play, Bell elaborated on the incident.
Excerpts from his interaction with the media:
On his knock
Really enjoyed today. [It is] obviously a good place to bowl here, it does swing a lot, [but] on days like today when the sun’s out it becomes a great place to bat as well. You get such [a] quick outfield, massive value for shots.
On the sequence of events that unfolded before tea, and whether he did go for a fourth run
Confusion, I guess. [Eoin] Morgan clipped that one off his pads; it looked like it had gone for a four, that’s what we had initially thought. Obviously [that’s] what the fielder I guess had thought - there was Kumar down there. It looked like by his body language that it had gone for four [….]; it looked like [it was] over and tea. Then I walked to Morgan and [started to] walk off the field for tea but [it was] probably a little bit naïve on my behalf. [Going by] the actual rules, I probably should have been out today. But in the spirit of the game and everything, the decision’s been right and both teams had a massive part and played in the spirit of cricket.
On whether the confusion happened because he jogged towards Eoin Morgan instead of walking after he thought it was tea
[There was] massive confusion, but I can honestly say I was walking off for tea, [and] wasn’t attempting a run. But like I said, it’s been fantastic for both teams the way that they have gone about this and helps to move forward in the series. Real tough series, hard on the field and a real good decision has been made for the game and moving forward in the spirit of cricket.
On what transpired during tea
Captains and coaches got together and just asked whether the decision would stand. I think that Duncan [Fletcher] and MS Dhoni went back and spoke to the team. They said that they [would] come back to us on that decision. Three or four of us padded to go out after tea [depending] on whatever the decision and we got the nod to say that I was going to be reinstated back to the crease and carry on.
On whether he would have looked at the decision differently had it not been overturned
Possibly, [but] the right decision has been made and it was naïve on my part to walk off for tea and like I said, we can move forward now. Both teams handled it really well and we can just move forward.
On England being in a commanding position
We scored as many runs as possible and [the] wicket’s got pretty good now. We know that we are going to play against a world-class batting line-up and we have to get as many runs as possible and then allow our bowlers to come out and be very aggressive and hopefully go and get ten wickets.
