England had the upper hand on Day 3 of the Edgbaston Test against Pakistan, at the end of which they find themselves ahead of the visitors by 17 runs. Alastair Cook and Alex Hales have put on an unbeaten 120-run stand. With two days to go, both the match and the series can be said to be delicately balanced.
The biggest contentious incident from Pakistan fans' point of view on Day 3 was the dismissal of Yasir Shah, who was run out by a combination of Chris Woakes' arm and Jonny Bairstow’s elbow. With the lead at 70 runs, Sarfraz Ahmed called Yasir Shah for a second run but the No. 8 was always going to struggle to make his ground. He put in a leap at the end of the run, the third umpire was called into play, and he was given out – despite the ball never having actually touched the stumps.
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Because the ball and the bails had never been in contact, there has been protests from some sections of fans, who say that third umpire Kumar Dharmasena was wrong in giving Yasir out. However, as a cursory perusal of the rules show, Bairstow had effected a corrected mode of running the batsman out, and Yasir was correctly adjudged out.
It was a clean dismissal as the ball was in Bairstow’s hands when his elbows knocked the stumps down. As MCC’s Rule 28 states, as long as it is the arm being used of the hand which has the ball, it would be a run out. Had Bairstow knocked the stumps over with his legs or any other part of his body with the ball in his hands, it would not have been out.
Rule 28 – "The wicket is put down if a bail is completely removed from the top of the stumps, or a stump is struck out of the ground by a fielder with his hand or arm, providing that the ball is held in the hand or hands so used, or in the hand of the arm so used."
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