Ian Bell, the former England batsman, recalls a famous ‘Spirit of Cricket’ moment in 2011 involving former India captain MS Dhoni and himself. During the disastrous Test series, a heart-touching incident featuring England’s in-form batsman Ian Bell and then captain Dhoni took place.
The moment arrived on the third day of the second Test match between the two countries in Nottingham. On the stroke of Tea on Day 3, England’s present white-ball captain Eoin Morgan guided the ball to the leg-side boundary with Ian Bell at the non-strikers’ end.
While both the batters thought it was a boundary and started to make the long walk back to the pavilion for the break, pacer Praveen Kumar somehow managed to collect the ball before the boundary rope, threw it back to keeper Dhoni, who passed it on to Abhinav Mukund, resulting in Bell’s run-out.
There was confusion for a long period regarding the dismissal. While the Indians appealed and Bell was given out, the visitors were booed by the English fans. Later on, Dhoni & Co. decided to withdraw the decision and recalled Bell, who was eventually dismissed on 159.
Ian Bells Said The Run Out Was My Mistake From My Behalf And Never To Be Repeated
“They obviously got Dhoni a ‘Spirit of the Game’ award for the decade or something like that. But yeah [it was] a mistake on my behalf, should never do that,” Bell recalled the whole run-out episode and recently told The Grade Cricketer’s YouTube channel.
He added, “From 2011 to 2013, those 2 years really [were my peak]. But as a team as well we were winning home and away. We won in Australia and India as well, which is so hard to do in Test cricket. For me, 2013 was a series where I suppose I played at a level I wanted to play at.” While India went onto lose the series 0-4, Dhoni was awarded the ‘ICC Spirit of Cricket Award’ later in 2020 for his act of recalling Bell back in the middle
