Team India warded-off a big storm when skipper M.S Dhoni demonstrated a spirited shrug of taking out his runout appeal against England batsman Ian Bell during the second Test match against England at Trent Bridge.

The strange incident took place in the final over before tea session and added excitement to the fixture which is already turning towards a thrilling conclude.

Bell was playing on 137 when his crease-mate Eoin Morgan flicked the ball off Ishant Sharma to deep square leg where Praveen Kumar attempted to save the ball and flung the ball back to keeper Dhoni.

Meanwhile, Bell touched his bat down within the crease for three runs. Deeming the ball had gone for a boundary, he jogged toward Morgan at the non-striker’s end, fully expecting the interval.

Mukund pluked the stumps at strikers end

But after Bell got a forewarning from Morgan, Dhoni threw the ball to Abhinav Mukund, who plunked the stumps at the strikers end.

On that time the umpire hadn’t indicated a boundary or called it tea. After a long conversation between umpires Asad Rauf, Marais Erasmus and the third umpire, enraged Bell was sacked on 137.

The English crowd was left flabbergasted as Bell was course-plotting the hosts to a well-built position.

The extremely dissatisfied spectators hailed the tourists with taunts when they returned to field for the final session.

Strauss and Flower requested Dhoni to reconsider the appeal

During the break, English skipper Andrew Strauss and Coach Andy Flower went to Indian dressing room and requested MS Dhoni to reconsider their appeal.

Dhoni then withdrew the appeal and Bell reappeared after tea to recommence his proceedings with Morgan. When crowd see saw Bell back on the crease they started consoling the visitors.

Bell was lastly out after adding 22 more runs to his total when Yuvraj Singh edged him to VVS Laxman at slip cordon.

Former and present cricketers strappingly backed and appreciated Dhoni’s sportsman spirit and remunerated esteem to him in golden words.
At close of play, Bell, while talking to a leading British news agency said:

“Looking back, it was probably a bit naïve on my part to automatically walk off for tea but the right decision has been made for the good of the game and it is a relief.

“I put my bat down after the third and it looked like we were just meandering off for tea.

“Turning around, the umpire took his jumper out and started to walk towards the bowler and it all just looked like it was going towards tea. We were both a bit shocked, we didn’t really realise what had happened until we were halfway off.

“I didn’t know until the last minute that I would be going back out again but the way it’s been handled has been fantastic and in the spirit of the game.”