SA vs ENG 2020: Ben Stokes Defends His Celebration after Dismissing Anrich Nortje

Sledging is a pretty common thing on the field when two teams are taking on each other. Once again this took place during the third day of the third Test between South Africa and England in Port Elizabeth. England all-rounder Ben Stokes involved in a verbal chat with South Africa player Anrich Nortje.

However, he clarified that his verbal chat was not for Nortje. Stokes said that he told that to umpire Bruce Oxenford to stay off the field, that too jokingly. His clarification came after a twitter user tweeted about that. He said that the rest of his teammates should have been imposed demerit points by the ICC for allegedly “showing complete disrespect to Nortje after taking his wicket”.

The visitors posted a huge total of 499 for 9 before declaring in the first innings. They are trying to win the game that will help them retain the Basil d’Oliveira trophy. However, Nortje stood strong and seemed to ponder those plans with a decent tailender’s knock before Stokes dismissed him.

Meanwhile, after the dismissal, along with catcher Joe Root and other fielders started having an animated conversation which was shown on camera. This made a twitter user angry, who thought Proteas pacer Kagiso Rabada faced an unfair ban. Rabada’s ban came for his weird behaviour post Root’s dismissal. With this, he received his fourth demerit point within two years and also fined 15 percent of his match fees.

Ben Stokes replies to the Twitter user

“Just to clarify…this was to Bruce Oxenford to stay off the field as a joke, as the replacement umpire was on the field for 2 of our wickets whilst Bruce wasn’t on the field, nothing was aimed at Nortje what so ever, all clear,” Stokes tweeted.

After Stokes, pace bowler Jofra Archer also defended his team’s actions after the dismissal. “Sorry, were you at the ground?” he replied the Twitter user.