Kohli, Finch urge ICC to address bails issue

For the fifth time in the World Cup, a fielding side was left exasperated when the bails remained dislodged despite the stumps being hit by the ball with a decent impact.

India couldn’t believe their luck when David Warner dragged a Jasprit Bumrah scorcher on to his stumps following an inside edge while trying to defend the delivery. The ball made contact with the bottom part of the leg-stump but the bails didn’t come off that forced both Indian skipper Virat Kohli and Australian skipper Aaron Finch call upon authorities to address the issue.

“Definitely,” said Kohli when asked if something needed to be done to fix the anomaly. “I mean, this is not something which you expect at the international level. I think with the technology it's great. The lights come on and you know it's very precise when you actually make something happen with the stumps. But you literally have to smash the stumps really hard, and I'm saying that as a batsman. If I see something happening like that, I'd be very surprised, also. And these are fast bowlers. These are not your medium-pace bowlers,” Kohli reasoned.

Finch, on Saturday, had suggested that the new bails being grooved on the light-up stumps were a bit heavier in comparison and that was probably the reason why they were not falling off. Kohli, on the other hand, thought that it could be the stumps – the outer coating – why bails were hard to be dislodged.

“M S (Dhoni) said we checked the stump hole, as well. The stump was not in very hard, it was actually loose,” he pointed out. “So, I don't know what's actually wrong with the stump -- the outer coating of the stump. I have no idea what's going on due to the lights coming on, if the stump is too thick or too rigid, I have no idea. But I'm sure no team would like seeing stuff like that when you actually bowl a good ball and then you don't get the guy out, the ball hits the stump and the lights don't come on, or the lights come on and the bail comes back on to the stump. I haven't seen that happen so many times in the past,” he remarked.

On the eve of the match, Finch appeared to have reconciled with the situation, saying that one had to take the good with the bad but on Sunday, he too felt it was unfair on the bowling side, though his own team-mate was a beneficiary on this instance.

“Yeah, I think so,” said Finch when asked if it was becoming an issue. “It wasn't (an issue because) we were on the right end of it today, but I think going forward, you want -- it's a bit unfair at times, isn't it? And I know David was -- hit the stumps pretty hard. But it does seem to be happening more and more, which is unfortunate, because you'd hate to see something like that happen in a World Cup final or a semifinal or something like that that you've done the hard work as a bowler or a fielding side to set a player up or get the mistake and it not be rewarded,” he observed.