WATCH: Ben Stokes and Jermaine Blackwood engage in war of words; umpire separates pair
A heated exchange between England allrounder Ben Stokes and West Indies batter Jermaine Blackwood came to light on Day 3 of the second Test in Barbados this Friday (March 18). Stokes and Blackwood indulged a few verbal volleys before things escalated to a point where they nearly collided into each other.
It required the cool and calming heads of the standing umpires Joel Wilson and Nigel Duguid to ensure the exchange didn’t take ugly proportions where the two cricketers may have made contact while herling each other with a mouthful of abuse and inappropriate words.
By the looks of it, it was Ben Stokes who started the jeering as he was seen yelling “No!! No!!!” when Blackwood was only telling his batting partner Kraigg Brathwaite not to go the run. Stokes was obviously hoping to get under the skin of the batter and induce a false stroke to try and separate a partnership that had by then lasted 183 runs.
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Ben Stokes and Jermaine Blackwood gave each other a mouthful.
Ben Stokes jeers Jermaine Blackwood before batter responds in a heated exchange
The incident was on show after the third ball of the 103rd over in the West Indies first-innings where the hosts were leading an impressive response to England’s daunting 507/9 declared. With Blackwood well set at the crease along with Brathwaite, England gave the ball to Ben Stokes to see if the right-arm seamer could make something happen on a largely benign Kensington Oval deck.
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On the fourth ball of his over, Stokes pitched one short that Blackwood duly played out from the backfoot. As a normal means to communicate the no run, Blackwood said “No, no, no..” towards his batting partner. But in between, Stokes started yelling the same and is understood to have added something objectionable to his sentence. This is when Blackwood responded in equal measure and that led to a heated exchange after the next ball.
Let the war of words commence!
A heated argument broke out between @JBlackwood100 and @benstokes38 and the umpires had to step in!
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With both the cricketers keen to finish off the argument in their favour, it needed the two umpires to separate them as England skipper Joe Root also tried to calm things down and urged Stokes to refocus on his bowling duties.
The two umpires came around and got Stokes and Root involved in a discussion, clearly telling them to get on with the game and not do anything untoward when the batter had made no attempt to go after the bowler in the first place. It is only when Stokes started jeering him did Blackwood responded. Thankfully, the matter was settled soon and cricket resumed.