Former England batsman Ian Bell recalled the run-out controversy involving him and the then India captain MS Dhoni during the 2011 Trent Bridge Test, saying it was his “mistake” and he shouldn’t have assumed that the play is over for the session.
The incident is from near the end of the second session on Day 3 in Nottingham. Batting on 137 at the time, Bell assumed the final ball of the session to have touched the boundary as his partner Eoin Morgan clipped a delivery from pacer Ishant Sharma through the on-side.
Both the batsmen, having thought that it is four, started walking back to the pavilion for tea. However, they later realised that fielder Praveen Kumar had stopped the ball just inside the rope. Kumar threw the ball to Dhoni, who in turn gave it to Abhinav Mukund, and Mukund dislodged the bails at the end to which Bell ran across.
Having taken note of what has happened, on-field umpires sent the matter upstairs before the TV umpire adjudged it a run-out, much to the despair of Bell, the England team and their fans in the stadium. Dhoni and his players were subjected to boos from the crowd which was heavy on English presence.
After the tea interval, however, those boos turned into a genuine round of applause as the crowd learnt that Dhoni has withdrawn his appeal, something even the English team appreciated from the dressing room. For his gesture, the ICC awarded Dhoni with the Spirit of Cricket Award.
Bell, who was allowed to resume batting, has now accepted it was his mistake and he should’ve been more alert to the situation.
“Yes, it’s interesting. When I look back to that, I mean, I must have been hungry or something because I literally just belted for the pavilion when I thought it was four if it was either way around, I would have been safe and we would have been fine,” Bell told The Grade Cricketer’s YouTube channel.
“But yeah, they obviously got Dhoni a ‘Spirit of the Game’ award for the decade or something like that. But yeah [it was] a mistake on my behalf, should never do that,” he added.
During the interaction, Bell also talked about his peak years as a batsman from 2011 to 2013, which coincided with England clinching an Ashes Down Under and also winning a Test series in India.
“From 2011 to 2013, those 2 years really [were my peak]. But as a team as well we were winning home and away. We won in Australia and India as well, which is so hard to do in Test cricket. For me, 2013 was a series where I suppose I played at a level I wanted to play at,” he concluded.
