Lord’s Test: Rathour on alleged ball-tampering: Did not look deliberate, just accidental
India batting coach Vikram Rathour on Sunday downplayed accusations of “ball tampering by England players on the 4th day of the Lord’s Test,” saying that, in his opinion, the incident was completely “accidental.”
The incident took place before the 34th over of the match when two England players appeared to step on the ball with their spikes during India’s second innings.
“Not really, we were sitting outside so we hardly saw those replays. I saw it later, it does not look anything deliberately. I think it was accidental, we did not think anything about it actually,” Rathour said at the post-day press conference.
The Indian team hasn’t lodged an official complaint with match referee Chris Broad. The incident was recorded in the 35th over of the Indian second innings, bowled by Ollie Robinson.
Shaun Pollock who was commenting at that time also showed his disapproval regarding the incident. The footage didn’t show the face of the players. The matter did not escalate and the umpires didn’t change the ball.
In fact, injured England seamer Stuart Broad also believes that it was not intentional. Broad’s explanation was that if the umpires needed to check the ball after the particular incident to ensure it hasn’t been fiddled with, then every six would warrant a ball check.
India had reached 181 for six, leading England by 154 runs when bad light forced early stumps on day four, Rishabh Pant (14 batting off 29) will need some support from the long Indian tail to add some valuable runs on the fifth morning. With the pitch already playing a few tricks, England will have to bat extremely well to secure victory.
