England middle-order batsman Ian Bell has said that the Indian team's decision to call him back to bat after he was declared out on the third day of the Trent Bridge Test was made in the spirit of the game.
England middle-order batsman Ian Bell has said that the Indian team's decision to call him back to bat after he was declared out on the third day of the Trent Bridge Test was made in the spirit of the game.
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Addressing media persons here on Sunday, Bell said: "It was difficult; I didn't quite know what was going on because we were walking off for tea. But, I think, we have been in the position before, when something happened in a one day international. I think, we all make wrong decisions, but I think the right things, decisions were made today in the spirit of the game and I would have thought that we would have, both teams would have done exactly the same."
u00a0"Again it's difficult to say what we would have done, you now if we were in the middle, we would have gone for an out decision straight away, I don't know probably not. It's just that we should move on now, that we have learnt a lesson," he added.
The incident occurred when England batsman Eoin Morgan attempted to hit a four towards deep square leg, which was saved from crossing the boundary by Praveen Kumar.
Meanwhile, Bell struck a stupendous 159 to give an edge to the hosts and helped them to take a substantial 374-run lead over the Indian team.
Bell, who scored his 15th test century and put England in a commanding position as the hosts were 441 at the loss of six wickets at the end of the third day.
He blamed himself for the run-out incident, saying he was naive and stupid to walk out of the before the tea break was declared.
"I take some blame. Like I said, I was very naive just to do what I did, to walk off for tea, that's stupid. But yeah, there is no doubt that this was the best innings that I've played. You know I really admire this Indian team, I guess number one ranked team in the world, some world-class players not just with the batting but with the bowling and you know really enjoyed playing against them," he said.
"It's a massive contest all time. Both test matches have been really hard on the field. We've played some great cricket so far and I just want to be part of that. It would be nice if the hundred could be remembered for you know being a good hundred against a very good team," he added.
Meanwhile, Rahul Dravid said that they needed to fight hard to get back into the game.
"You do not go into any match believing that you can't get a score, you know we got some quality in our team, our batsmen. You know we got to fight; probably we are at a situation where we can't think too much about the score. We just got to bat like it's the first innings of the game and take it from there," said Dravid.
Talking about Bell's run-out, he said that the Indian team's decision to call him back was made in the spirit of the game.
"I mean if you look at the laws of the game and you adhere to them strictly, then probably he was out, but just in the spirit of the game, it didn't feel right and Dhoni and the team felt at tea time that you know the right thing to do was to ask him to bat again," he said.
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