England v Australia - Men - Ashes 2022 & 2023

The Ashes 2023: Jonny Bairstow should have been warned before dismissal..By Jonathan Agnew, BBC cricket correspondent.

ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/640x360/p01jzkvk.jpg

I have been coming to Lord's for many years now but have never witnessed anything like the fifth day of the second Ashes Test on Sunday.

For an opposition captain to be booed like Australia's Pat Cummins was when he stepped up to the podium after Australia sealed that dramatic and controversial victory was extraordinary.

The atmosphere was febrile.

Sunday crowds often feel different at Lord's. They have a People's Day feel and the 30,000 inside the ground certainly let their feelings be known.

Let's get one thing straight first: technically, Jonny Bairstow's contentious dismissal was out.

He wandered out of his ground before the ball was dead and wicketkeeper Alex Carey threw down the stumps.

Bairstow may have scratched the crease with his boot, seemingly declaring himself that the ball was dead, but that is not how it works.

In the BBC box, I was in the process of a handover to the next commentator. The umpire Ahsan Raza was reaching for bowler Cameron Green's cap. It felt like the end of the over but, technically, it was not.

The issue, though, once again, comes back to that difficult thing - the spirit of cricket.

It is not a black and white rulebook but the code we all follow the game by. It is a personal thing.

ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/480xn/p01c12ht.jpg

Bairstow had gone on the same wander down the pitch after each of the previous three balls but he was not trying to gain an advantage. He was not setting off for a run or batting out of his crease to negate swing.

Others will disagree with me, some of my Test Match Special colleagues do, but that is why I would have liked to have seen Australia give Bairstow a warning before going through with that kind of dismissal.

Back in 2008, we had the situation where England ran out New Zealand's Grant Elliott after bowler Ryan Sidebottom had crashed into him and knocked him to the ground in a one-day international.

England captain Paul Collingwood should have withdrawn his appeal that day and, like on that occasion, there was time, while the TV umpire was deliberating, when Cummins had the chance to change his mind. When you are in your huddle, you have the chance to think 'I'm not sure about this'.

But when I spoke to him afterwards, Cummins was adamant in his position. He said it was "fair" and that just shows how these things are individual decisions.

One thing that is certain is the incident fired up Ben Stokes.

Stokes is an extraordinary phenomenon. We, and the Australians, have seen it before and, in his 155 which threatened to take England to victory, we witnessed it yet again.

England's talisman was at his destructive best which was pleasing to witness, because we have not really seen it in the past 12 months.

Stokes' six-hitting was incredible, those three sixes to take him to his century in particular.

Because of that knee injury which clearly hampers him, every time we see Stokes I wonder how much longer he will play but we have to appreciate him while we still can.

He is one of England's great cricketers and it is clear how much Australia fear him.

When reflecting on Stokes match-winning innings at Headingley in 2019, the suggestion from the Australia team was that they should have bowled normally, that they lost their heads that day as England secured a memorable victory.

But faced with a similar situation again, Cummins put every fielder on the boundary and that was an interesting insight into how they view Stokes.

The Bairstow dismissal and the furore around it will galvanise England.

It is not going to do relations between the sides much good and England will have to use that to their advantage if they are going to have any chance of getting back into the series.

The Headingley crowd is always hostile and that is only going to go up another notch when the third Test begins on Thursday.

England should pick Mark Wood for his express pace, bowl their bouncers and embrace that emotion.

This series has been gripping but until its 10th day had been cosy and chummy. We have had Stuart Broad and David Warner chatting like blokes in the pub.

That is not going to continue and it only adds to the excitement.

England will be fired up and I was encouraged by how they played in their second innings.

It is clear they lost this game in the first innings when they lost those quick wickets to Australia's short-ball ploy. That's where the 40 runs that would have won this game should have come from.

www.famousbirthdays.com/faces/agnew-jonathan-image.jpg

But England were better in the second effort.

Of course, Stokes was a big part of that but opener Ben Duckett also batted beautifully for his 83 and Broad was brave in that 108-run stand with his captain.

England will know they can beat Australia. With a few tweaks, some luck here or there, they could easily be 2-0 up in this series.

That is not to say Australia are fortunate - they must be given credit too - but, at Edgbaston and again at Lord's, England found themselves in strong positions.

They just cannot keep throwing them away and failing to turn them into commanding ones.

You cannot argue with history. England have never come from 2-0 down to win the Ashes.

But they just have to take each match at a time, starting with Headingley, and take forward the positives of the Lord's final day.

Who knows, we could yet see something even more extraordinary.

Jonathan Agnew was speaking to BBC Sport's Matthew Henry