Sri Lanka missed taking a review on the first ball of the match against England at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru today (October 26) against Jonny Bairstow.
England won the toss and decided to bat first after a huge flop in the chase against South Africa in Mumbai a few days earlier. They made three changes to their eleven, bringing in Chris Woakes, Liam Livingstone and Moeen Ali. Returns in place of Reece Topley, Gus Atkinson and Harry Brooke.
Jonny Bairstow and Dawid Malan opened England’s innings while Dilshan Madhushanka took over with the new ball for Sri Lanka. If Bairstow had been lucky, he might have been sent off on the first pitch.
Madushanka hit an in-swinging half-volley into leg stump to Bairstow, whose bat and pads were jammed and he was late to the ball. The ball hit the middle of the bat and fell straight to the ground, converting England’s lead into a three-point shot. However, given the proximity of bat, pads and ball, the Sri Lankans banded together for a while to consider reviewing, but eventually backed out, perhaps because it was the first ball of the innings and they could not bear it. 100% safe.
Replay appeared after 1 minute. The ball tracker showed that the ball not only hit the pads first, but also hit the line, hit the line and then hit leg stump.
Had Sri Lanka checked, the on-field decision would have been reversed and Bairstow would have been awarded the first ball.
Quite a moment in England’s World Cup: Jonny Bairstow would have been lbw first ball of the innings had Sri Lanka reviewed, but they opted not to review after a long consultation.
– Tim Wigmore (@timwig) 26. October 2023
Unfortunately for Sri Lanka, the result was not that way. Malan and Bairstow formed an opening partnership of 45 runs in 6.3 overs, but the former was caught out by the bowling of veteran Angelo Matthews.
At the time of writing, England were 71-3 from 14 overs.
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