Ben Foakes pulls off an MS Dhoni behind the stumps in a controversial yet extraordinary stumping

Foakes pulled off an unimaginable, which bamboozled Irish batsman Andrew Balbirnie and was back in the hut in no time.

Published - 04 May 2019, 22:34 IST | Updated - 04 May 2019, 22:34 IST

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The best of the best acts of fielding are pulled off behind the stumps as the wicketkeeper’s duties revolve much around the presence of mind and alertness. And that’s the reason behind the “captain cool” MS Dhoni’s success as a standout wicketkeeper who is known for his reflex, which is considered to be the best in the world. During the one-off ODI match between Ireland and England, a rare case of stumping was pulled off by Ben Foakes.

Andrew Balbirnie, the 28-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman was completely bamboozled by the act and alertness of Ben Foakes who made it to the England team due to the absence of Alex Hales. He further justified his selection in the national team as he scored an unbeaten 61 off 76 balls to take England to a close victory in Dublin on Friday. Together Tom Curran(47 not out off 56) formed a 98-run seventh wicket partnership.

However, the 25th over of Ireland’s innings was the real highlight of the game. It was Joe Denly’s over and he bowled a wide off which Balbirnie attempted hitting the sweep shot and missed. The ball was grabbed by the wicketkeeper. Balbirnie the batsman on strike kept his back foot intact, but Foakes kept his eyes set on the batsman’s movement and even before the umpire Kumar Dharmasena could signal wide, Foakes pulled off the unimaginable.

The English debutant’s patience finally paid off when Balbirnie finally slightly lifted his toe and in that small window, an alert Foakes lifted the bails for an attentive stumping. It sure raised some questions as the act can be deemed against the spirit of Cricket. It was in fact compared to Ravichandran Ashwin’s act of ‘Mankading’ of Jos Buttler in IPL 2019.

MCC holds the stumping as legal

However, just like in Ashwin’s case, the MCC Law held that Foakes was well within the rights to bring about the stumping.

As per MCC’s Law 20.6.1.2, “unless No ball or Wide ball has been called, it will be a valid ball if the striker has had an opportunity to play it, except in the circumstances of 20.4.2.6 and Laws 24.4 (Player returning without permission), 28.2 (Fielding the ball), 41.4 (Deliberate attempt to distract striker) and 41.5 (Deliberate distraction, deception or obstruction of batsman).”

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