Bhuvneshwar and Kuldeep's aborted run ups weren't necessarily in spirit of cricket, asserts David Willey

Willy was not too happy with the tactics of Indian bowlers to pull out of their delivery stride right at the end of the run up, stating that it was not in the spirit of cricket. Twice in the 10th over, Kuldeep didn't complete his delivery after running in, finishing his run-up with what seemed like a 'Mankading' warning for the non-striker Alex Hales.

Since he was pulling out of his bowling action in the very last minute, Kuldeep was perhaps getting a hint of which area Buttler was targeting. When the bowler repeated it for the second time in the same over, Hales and Buttler both complained to the umpire. Bhuvneshwar Kumar did the same thing on what should've been the final ball of the England innings, against Willey. The batsman was midway through his attempted shot - shuffling across his crease - when Bhuvneshwar aborted his run up.

"I think he was looking to see what I was going to do. They did that a few times. The spinners did it a couple of times. I'm not sure what the rules are on that. I don't particularly like it. I don't think it is necessarily in the spirit of cricket. It's not my job to comment on that too much on what they should or shouldn't be doing. Personally, I don't think I'd do that. I don't think it is great," Willey said, reported Cricbuzz.

The incident involving Bhuvneshwar and Willey spilled over to a brief confrontation between the two players. Bhuvneshwar was seen saying something to Willey, who in-turn gestured with a dismissive wave of a hand.

"It was something of nothing. I think with all the microphones and cameras people get a bit giddy about this sort of thing. I don't think they got under our skin particularly. They have a few fiery characters and that is part and parcel of cricket. It has gone on for years, mostly unnoticed because of the lack of cameras and microphones. There is more attention drawn to it now. There is far less of it now."

"I don't mind a bit of confrontation. I have had my fair share of it in the past. If it comes my way I am quite happy to get involved. We are advised to play cricket and leave those antics to other people," Willey added.

The opinion from the other end was one of contrast as centurion KL Rahul jumped to the defence of his fellow match-winner Kuldeep and Bhuvneshwar, citing the heavily-skewed nature of the T20 cricket as a reason enough for such practices to be allowed.

"It will frustrate me as a batsman. It did I guess frustrate the English batsmen but the margin for error for bowlers in T20 cricket is very little. So whatever tactics they can come up with and whatever they try to do to upset the batsmen is only fair," Rahul opined.

Rahul termed Indian bowlers' decision as 'only fair', questioning England batsmen's tendency to back up too far from the non-striker's end.

"And he didn't do anything which... you know you can do it as a bowler, you can run a batsman out, he was taking few strides too many and it is a long boundary and if he gets that much start he can keep rotating the strike and keep getting two runs which will frustrate the bowler in return, so its only fair," he said.

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