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War of words spices up Day 4 of Nagpur Test
A heated exchange between Jonathan Trott and the Indian players spiced up an otherwise dull fourth day of the fourth final Test between India and England in Nagpur, on Sunday.
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Trott triggered the uproar when he hit a boundary off Jadeja after the ball had slipped from the left-arm spinner's hand and had rolled on the leg side. That angered the Indian players, especially Virat Kohli who exchanged a few words with Trott.
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An angry R Ashwin slammed Trott for his unsporting conduct as the ball had clearly slipped out of Jadeja's hand as he was about to deliver the ball.
"It was just that the shot he got away was a rolling ball, just seemed to us as a little innocuous. When you talk about gamesmanship and sportsmanship, I think you should hold by yourself to expect the same from opponents," he said.
The situation escalated further when there was a loud appeal for caught behind off Trott as he tried to cut Ishant Sharma, which again triggered a war of words.
'We are pushing for a win so it was a little heated'
"We are pushing for a win so it was a little [heated] but nothing got out just one or two words exchanged," Ashwin reasoned.
But the moment of the day was when Ashwin warned Trott for running out of his crease at the non-striker's end even before he had bowled.
And Ashwin said that he was justified in running Trott out. "I can run him out if he can hit the ball [for a four]," he said referring to that boundary hit.
And Trott didn't seem to regret his action and asked Ashwin to run him out. "He said you might as well run me out. I said I wouldn't."
Ashwin was once in the past involved in a similar scenario involving Sri Lankan batsman Lahiru Thirimanne during an ODI of the CB tri-series in Australia in February. On that occasion Ashwin had run out Thirimanne after he had left the crease before the ball was bowled but Virender Sehwag, the stand-in captain at that time withdrew the appeal.
When asked if Ashwin would run out Trott next time if he got the chance, he replied: "No, I wouldn't. He has got a boundary and he has got to 60 already. I think he has got enough times to actually get him out again."
England fast bowler James Anderson said the incident was not a serious one and even suggested that India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni was laughing it off.
"I think I saw Dhoni was laughing about it at one stage, so that couldn't have been the catalyst for it. I think when we are in the middle of a tough Test match, a crucial Test match, things are going to get heated from time to time with two teams trying to win a game of cricket with the series on the line, it will inevitably boil over from time to time," he said.