Five gestures by cricketers on the field which proves why cricket is a gentleman’s game!

1. M.S.Dhoni hands the captaincy unofficially to Ganguly in his last Test match!

2. Flintoff consoles Brett Lee in the Ashes series of 2005

But the incident that was talked about a lot happened in the 2nd test at the Edgbaston. The Test match went down to the wire with both the teams going for the win. But in the end, England came out on top by winning the Test match by 2 runs courtesy of one of the most brilliant bowling spells in Test cricket by Andrew Flintoff. But it was Steve Harmison who put the finishing touches to the match in the final minutes of the game. With only 2 runs to win the match, Kasprowicz edged the ball and got caught behind. The crowd went wild and so did the England players. While all of the English players were busy celebrating, Andrew Flintoff broke off from the celebrations, approached an absolutely devastated Brett Lee and started consoling him by first giving a handshake and hug. This is one of those moments that reminds us that cricket is indeed a gentleman’s game.

It was the 31st July 2011 and India were touring England. It was the second Test of the N Power series and England was settling well with Ian Bell scoring a brilliant century. It was the last ball before Tea, Eoin Morgan and Ian Bell were on the crease and Morgan was on strike. He flicked the ball to the boundary, and Praveen Kumar the fielder tumbled on the ball and as a result of that, it seemed like a boundary. The batsmen took 3 runs and were unsure if it was a 4 or not and both the batsmen started walking towards the pavilion thinking that the over was done. They were not aware that Praveen Kumar had thrown the ball, A.Mukund had removed the bails and appealed for a run-out until they saw on the big screen that Bell was given out. Bell and Morgan were shocked about the decision. There were a lot of boos in the stadium for what had just happened. During the interval, Andrew Strauss and Andy Flower went over to the Indian dressing room and asked them to retract the appeal and the Indian cricket team decided to do it. After the break, the Indian team was greeted with claps from the England cricket team and the English fans after finding out that India had, indeed, decided to retract the run-out appeal.

Gilchrist and Symonds were stunned by the decision. Symonds did not retaliate and just walked away, shocked. Immediately the umpire realized that Symonds edged the ball before getting it onto his pads. He consulted Billy Bowden who was the leg umpire at that time after which there was a discussion with the Sri Lankan players and the captain, Marvan Atapattu, who agreed to revert the decision, and Symonds was called back. Australia went on to lose the game by 1 run but Symonds remained not out till the end.

The day began with Australia winning the toss and electing to bat first. Warner and Rogers were settling well. In the middle of an audacious innings at the SCG in the fourth Test, David Warner turned a ball off his hip down to fine leg to take his score to 63. When David Warner reached 63*, the number of runs Phil Hughes scored in his last game, he went across to the patch of turf where Hughes lay unconscious after a Sean Abbott bouncer, kissed it and then looked at the heavens. This gesture prompted an ovation from the crowd. After the day was over, he talked about how Phil Hughes was special to him. “My Test debut was with Hughesy, and taking that spot in the nets where he could have been at the same training session felt so hard. There were serious thoughts there about pulling out of the Test; I didn’t want to play. But in the end, my emotions took over and I said I have to get out there and do it for my mate. I know from now on, whenever I get to 63, it will be nerve-wracking, but I will raise my bat to the sky”