WATCH: Australia take bizarre Hit Wicket review, netizens call it cheating

The last and the most anticipated series of the English summer has started with the hosts England taking on their arch-rivals Australia. The first T20I of the series got underway on Thursday night at Southampton. The match in its first innings itself saw some bizarre moments as the Aussies went upstairs for a review for a hit wicket that too caused by their own wicketkeeper Alex Carey. The fans found the incident hilarious and have started trolling the Aussies on social media citing the ‘Spirit of the game’.

Alex Carey dislodged the bails on his own and appeals for a hit wicket

The bizarre incident happened during the 16^th over of the match. It was Maxwell who was bowling to Tom Curran. The ball was slapped to the sweeper cover region by Curran, and at the same time Carey dislodged the bails own his own, and later went onto appeal for the hit wicket. The umpires immediately decided to have a look at it, and soon found out that Carey was guilty. He himself very well knew that the bails were dislodged by him, but he never admitted the mistake while Aussies and the umpires decided to have a look at it.

Nice try, Alex! ?

A tentative appeal for hit wicket from Australia but it was Alex Carey who dislodged the bails!

England 122-5 after 16. #ENGvAUS ?????????

? Watch live ? https://t.co/3V5xD5O02D
? Blog ? https://t.co/vvSmYfQ5hZ pic.twitter.com/rxBSsQx12y

— Sky Sports Cricket (@SkyCricket) September 4, 2020

This sparked a lot of controversy in social media, and the fans started to call this act as cheating. Some people also brought up the term ‘Spirit of Cricket’ and trolled the Aussies for not playing the game in its full spirit.

Spirt of cricket alive and well with the Aussies in town. NOT! #alexcarey

— Ian Callender (@Ian_Callender) September 4, 2020

Peak shithousery from Alex Carey there. Imagine if there was a crowd in…

— Chris Stocks (@StocksC_cricket) September 4, 2020

https://twitter.com/scorsesee/status/1301946074794344448?s=20

Few Indian fans even used this opportunity to troll former Australian captain Ricky Ponting and requested him to teach Carey about the ‘Spirit of Cricket’ once they meet together in the Delhi Capitals camp. This was in response to Ponting’s claim that Ashwin’s act of mankading Buttler during last year’s IPL was against the ‘Spirit of Cricket’.

What @ashwinravi99 does within the laws of the game…is pronounced against the spirit of the game…

While what #Alexcarey does is outrageously against the spirit of the game….on air everyone takes it casually…

??Slow claps to such hypocrisy!!#ENGvsAUS

— Gagan Chawla (@toecrushrzzz) September 4, 2020

England loses momentum after Buttler’s wicket

Hosts England got off to a great start courtesy of Jos Buttler’s impressive 44 of just 29 balls. They scored 55 runs in the powerplay with the loss of just one wicket. But since then wickets started to fall in quick succession and batsmen struggled to stitch together meaningful partnerships. Dawid Malan led the rescue operation for England as he scored a much needed 66 of 43 balls to take England to a decent score of 162. Spinners inflicted the major damage on England, with Maxwell and Agar picking up two wickets each.

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