Dale Steyn has criticised Washington Sundar and Ravindra Jadeja’s refusal to accept Ben Stokes’s offer for a draw in the Old Trafford Test match.
India trailed by 311 runs when they began their second innings at Old Trafford. With more than five sessions left in the Test, all seemed lost when they were reduced to 0-2 within five balls. However, KL Rahul (90) and Shubman Gill (103) batted for nearly 70 overs to bring India back into the Test.
India were 222-4 just before lunch on the final day when Jadeja joined Sundar, who had been promoted to No.5 in the aftermath of Rishabh Pant’s injury in the first innings. Sundar and Jadeja took India past the 311-run mark before tea. By the time the final hour began, India were 386-4 with Sundar on 80 and Jadeja on 89.
At this point, England captain Stokes offered the Indians a draw, which he was entitled to as per the Laws. Jadeja and Sundar declined the offer, which they were entitled to under the Laws. This triggered a verbal response from Stokes and some of his teammates, but Jadeja (89 at that point) and Sundar (80) stayed put.
Stokes immediately asked Harry Brook to bowl along with Joe Root. Against Brook’s very ordinary bowling – deliberate or otherwise – Jadeja raced to his hundred, while Sundar followed suit soon afterwards. The batters walked off after that.
The entire course of events triggered responses from the cricket fraternity. Some criticised Stokes for his reaction, while some others defended him. Two days after the incident, Steyn weighed in with his opinion.
“This has many layers to it”
On X, Steyn’s former South Africa teammate Tabraiz Shamsi asked why “such a big deal” was made about Sundar and Jadeja declining Stokes’ offer.
Steyn responded, describing the “many layers” of the incident: “The only issue I see here is the one thing people aren’t realizing, the batters weren’t playing for 100s, they were batting for a DRAW. That was the goal. Draw the game. Once that was accomplished, and a result was out of the question a handshake was offered, that’s the gentlemanly thing to do right? It’s not then the time to realize they safe and now say no we’d prefer some free milestones.”
It is worth a mention that earlier this month, Wiaan Mulder had declared the South African innings closed with his personal score on 367. On that occasion, Steyn observed that since a South African win was expected, “400 was a deserved” (presumably implying that Mulder might well have gone for Brian Lara’s world record score of 400).
Today’s conversation with Shamsi took a light-hearted turn where Steyn added: “if it were you and me batting on 90 each, it would take a tank to pull us off that field! Haha.”
