ICC World Cup 2019: Pitch invader tries to dislodge the bails in England-Afghanistan game

Along with some jaw-dropping cricket on the pitch, the 2019 edition of the World Cup has also been a witness to a minor disruption. The same is surrounding, dislodging of the bails. In a number of instances, the bails haven’t moved off their groove even after the ball made a strong connection with the stumps. Even as the batsmen have gotten away, bowlers turned out to be unlucky.

During India’s match against Australia, Jasprit Bumrah turned out to be the unlucky one while David Warner got the lucky break. The latter went on to score a half-century, though the mishap didn’t cost the Men in Blue the match. However, after the contest at the Kennington Oval in London, both teams’ skippers- Aaron Finch and Virat Kohli- expressed displeasure over the matter.

But on Tuesday’s match between England and Afghanistan at the Old Trafford in Manchester, another occurring regarding ‘dislodging the bails’ came to the fore. But this time it wasn’t about the leather hitting the stumps. In a rare incident, a pitch-invader tried to steal the bails in between the encounter. It occurred when the Afghans were faced with chasing 398 in their 50 overs against hosts England.

The individual who has not been identified ran to the middle of the pitch and got his hands onto the bails he dislodged them, probably trying to see how difficult it was to get those LEDs to glow.

England dominate once again   

As far as the game is concerned, it turned out to be a one-sided affair. After electing to bat first, the Brits racked up 397 on the board. Jonny Bairstow and Joe Root started the carnage, playing knocks of 90 and 88 respectively. Thereafter, it was the turn of skipper Eoin Morgan to wreak havoc in the Afghan camp.

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The southpaw notched 148 runs off 71 with four boundaries and 17 sixes. The number of over-boundaries he hit was the most in an ODI inning. Moeen Ali also played a cameo of 31 off nine balls. Rashid Khan ended up becoming the most expensive spinner in ODIs, giving away 110 runs in his spell of nine overs.

During the run-chase, Gulbadin Naib pulled off a quickfire 37 off 28 balls. Rahmat Shah got 46 off 74 followed by Hashmatullah Shahidi’s 100-ball 76. Former skipper Asghar Afghan also chipped in with 44, but their efforts went in vain as Afghanistan lost the match by a humongous margin of 150 runs.