Ashes fan fury as ‘ridiculous’ rain decision leaves England hopes in the balance
Cricket fans have blasted the ‘ridiculous’ decision to take lunch during a rare spell of dry weather during the fifth day of the Ashes fourth test at Old Trafford.
Australia trail England by an innings and 61 runs with five wickets remaining going into the final day of the match, which the hosts need to win to level the series and keep their hopes of regaining the urn alive.
England had built up a formidable 275-run lead from the respective first innings but rain in Manchester has wiped out much of the weekend play. Only 30 overs were bowled on Saturday with the visitors losing just one wicket – that of Marnus Labuschagne, who scored 111.
England now need to bowl the visitors out and, if required, score the remaining runs required to win the test and level the series. Play was scheduled to start at 11am but the weather ruled out the first hour, with a pitch inspection taken at 12.15pm as the conditions eased.
Infuriatingly for fans, the 40-minute lunch break was scheduled to commence at 12.20pm – despite the rain having stopped and conditions appearing to have improved at this time – with play to restart at 1pm. With further rain scheduled for the afternoon, it leaves the host’s hopes in jeopardy.
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One fan lamented on social media: “This is ridiculous, why do they still need lunch when they have been sitting in the dressing room all morning?? This kind of c*** puts people off watching cricket.”
Former England spinner Phil Tufnell added his voice to the dissent, adding on BBC Test Match Special: “Why do we always have to have lunch in cricket? I've only just had breakfast. There's a game out there to be had. Forget lunch, you can survive.”
England's captain Ben Stokes has his side's hopes in the balance due to the Manchester rain (Alex Davidson/Getty Images) Have Your Say! What do you think of the decision to take lunch during the dry spell? Tell us what you think here.
He added: “Let's skip lunch today lads. Get yourself a boiled egg and a tomato and let's get on with it.”
England star Joe Root had already called into question the wisdom of calling an end to the day’s play at 7pm."It doesn't get dark here in England until 10pm in the summer, why can't we just play until we bowl the overs?,” asked Root – who took Saturday’s wicket of Labuschane.
“There's been a lot of chat about not bowling the overs. There are so many different ways of trying to find opportunities to get as much play in as possible. At every opportunity at every stage you should be looking to find ways to get the Test on. We batted in worse conditions at Edgbaston, but that is cricket. You just want consistency in those conditions.”
Australia won each of the first two tests, at Edgbaston and Lord’s, but England’s hopes were revived by a third test victory at Headingley. England are looking to level the series at Old Trafford ahead of a potentially decisive fifth and final test at The Oval next week.
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