Ben Stokes was given not out to an lbw decision shortly after reaching his half-century against the Netherlands in Pune today (November 8), with the third umpire judging that he had likely hit the ball. It was not, however, a clear-cut decision.
England chose to win against the Netherlands first to end their losing streak at five. However, another mid-order collapse occurred and they were reeling at 192-6, once again relying on Stokes to get out of the hole. Stokes looked a threat as he completed his half-century off 58 balls with Bas de Lied hitting six.
Two overs later, he bowled Aryan Dutt for consecutive boundaries, four at midwicket, ending six overs and taking England past 250. However, later in the over, when Stokes tried to reverse Dutt’s sweep, he got caught in a tangle. As he fell to the ground, the ball hit him with a knee roll and appeared quite close to the wicket. However, Rod Tucker was not impressed and Holland submitted the decision for reconsideration.
Television referee Marais Erasmus first checked to see if Stokes had thrown it too close, as the ball flew close to his glove. There were some murmurs about the technology as the footage flickered around in the frame, which Erasmus described as “grunts”.
Ben Stokes was given not out to this lbw review
He concluded that the ball must have damaged Stokes’ glove on its way through, and urged Tucker to stick with his original decision. There was some skepticism about this decision among commentators, as the Edge is usually seen as the clear pinnacle of technology. When the ball passed through Stokes’ glove, there was no spike per se, but rather a technical confusion.
There was also some question as to whether the disturbance was caused by Stokes’ glove touching his paw, which was clearly the case.
Stokes scored his first World Cup goal, but was sent off by Logan van Beek and finished with 108 off 84 balls. In the same over from Dutt after the incident, he scored 23 runs, including 26 runs. England won the match by his 160 runs.
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