Cricket World Cup news: England captain Eoin Morgan reveals why Jos Buttler was checking the ball after his dismissal

Cricket World Cup news: England captain Eoin Morgan reveals why Jos Buttler was checking the ball post his dismissal versus Pakistan on Monday

The ongoing ICC Cricket World Cup has finally gathered moss, with two back to back thrilling matches at the disposal of the ardent fans. While Bangladesh defeated the mighty South Africans on Sunday, it was the ‘Mercurial’ Pakistan team which ended its 11 matches long losing drought, defeating the red-hot favourites and Hosts to the marquee tournament, England by 14 runs at Trent Bridge, Nottingham.

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While the Cricketing fraternity finally rejoiced after a string of one-sided contests, an apparent controversy emerged post the England vs Pakistan match at Nottingham on Monday. And it is the ‘Men in Green’ who are at the receiving end.

England captain, Eoin Morgan expressed his anger post his team’s loss yesterday on Pakistan’s alleged mishandling of the ball during the second innings.

Why was Morgan angry?

At the end of the match, Eoin Morgan revealed that both the teams (England and Pakistan) were confronted on the ball handling issue throughout the match by the on-field umpires. The umpires were of the opinion that the bowlers from both the teams were on a regular basis trying to hit the rough patches on the pitch in order to extract some reverse swing.

“There were discussions throughout the whole of the two innings. The umpires came to me, mid-innings, and seemed to think that we were throwing the ball in on the bounce too much or it was being over exaggerated,” said Morgan.

Morgan felt that the Pakistani bowlers also tried and tested same tactic (to extract reverse swing), but were doing it more frequently than his fast bowlers.

“They (the umpires) emphasised it would be the same for both. It was really about us then… that conversations that were stopping the game were that Pakistan were doing the same thing”, Morgan exclaimed.

Buttler checks the ball after being dismissed

Also, the England Wicket-keeper Jos Buttler’s, who had scored his maiden World Cup hundred (103 off 76) yesterday, was rather intrigued to check the state of the ball after he was dismissed off a slower delivery bowled by Mohammed Amir. Buttler, apparently wanted to see which side of the ball was tougher than the other.

“Jos was just intrigued to see the ball. When the ball is hit against the LED advertising boards it does scuff it up quite a lot so we he was just interested to see if one side was tougher than the other, natural or unnatural,” he added.

Nevertheless, the Pakistan Cricket Team must be emphatic after their first win in 12 completed ODIs, and what better can it be to end the losing streak by defeating the no.1 ODI side in the World right now.

After a yet another display of scintillating batting against England, posting 348/8 in 50 overs after put into bat by England, it was the Pakistani bowling during the fag end of the second innings, especially by the experienced duo of Mohammad Amir and Wahab Riaz, that the ‘Men in Green’ were able to halt the English batting juggernaut.

Despite centuries from Joe Root (107 off 104) and Jos Buttler (103 off 76), England fell short of 14 runs in what was a humdinger of a match in Trent Bridge on Monday.

Cricket World Cup Points Table (After Match 6)

1. West Indies- 2 Points (1 win 0 loss)
2. New Zealand- 2 Points ( 1 win 0 loss)
3. Australia- 2 Points (1 win 0 loss)
4. England- 2 Points (1 win 1 loss)
5. Bangladesh- 2 Points (1 win 0 loss)
6. Pakistan- 2 Points ( 1 win 1 loss)
7. India- 0 Points (0 win 0 loss)
8. South Africa- 0 Points ( 0 wins 2 losses)
9. Afghanistan- 0 Points ( 0 win 1 loss)
10. Sri Lanka- 0 Points ( 0 win 1 loss)