'Acting aisa karo ki umpire ko lage out hai' - Fans troll Steve Smith and Australia after controversial catch to dismiss Joe Root in second Ashes 2023 Test

Former Australia skipper and the batting superstar, Steve Smith was in the headlines of the cricketing world yesterday for various reasons. Firstly, he smashed his Test career’s 32^nd century in the first innings of the ongoing second Ashes 2023 Test. But later on in the day, Smith happened to fall on the receiving end of some trolls and criticism for the controversial catch to dismiss England star Joe Root.

The moment came in England’s first innings on the 3^rd ball of the 46^th over when the former England skipper Joe Root was batting on the individual score of 10 runs. Senior pacer Mitchell Starc’s delivery took the outside edge of Root’s bat and went straight towards Smith.

The question was if the ball grounded or if Smith successfully managed to get his body under it. Late on, it ignited a debate on social media as Root was given out by the TV umpire Marais Erasmus. Fans took to the micro-blogging site Twitter to question the fact that why always it is an Australian in such kind of incidents. They also questioned the integrity of the Aussies while dealing with such situations.

Here's how fans reacted:

Acting aise kro k umpire ko Lage out hae #TheAshes

— tall_boe (@lovedybala21) June 29, 2023

Same old Aussies, always cheating.

— Bheem (@Turbodrive15) June 30, 2023

Australians and cheating is an unreal love story.

— sumit (@_sumit30) June 29, 2023

Clearer view pic.twitter.com/qiUbWYBtmI

— Out Of Context Cricket (@GemsOfCricket) June 29, 2023

Ask Ricky ponting he will say Yes

— Adish (@AdishG97) June 29, 2023

I don't know what is going on 😐 ball was sliding down and touching the ground at it helped smith to pouch it clearly not out

— Soaib Khan (@SoaibKh60107708) June 30, 2023

Kya matlab not out hai 😵‍💫😵‍💫

— Divyanshu Verma (@KdramaForever2) June 29, 2023

It always had to be an Australian

— Mayur👓 (@mayureshh31) June 29, 2023

Ofcourse that's out how do you question Ricky ponting nation 😡😡😡

— RS45 ⚡ (@vj99_) June 29, 2023

clearly not out

— Melbourne 82* 🇮🇳 (@IamSid306) June 29, 2023

bc roj jameen se bowl uthakr out ki appeal krte hai

— Pratik ! (@itsVk_pratik19) June 29, 2023

Speaking of the action of the match, the hosts England had scored 278 runs for the loss of four wickets at the end of the second day’s play. They started playing after bundling up Australia on the score of 416 runs. Ben Duckett played a quick knock of 98 runs with nine boundaries to his name. Other than him, opener Zak Crawley and number three batter Ollie Pope also scored 48 and 42 runs respectively.

At the end of the second day’s play, young middle-order batter Harry Brook was unbeaten on an individual score of 45 runs alongside skipper Ben Stokes who was on an individual score of 17 runs.

Earlier in the first innings, Australia posted a massive total of 416 runs courtesy of Steve Smith’s 32^nd Test century alongside 66 and 77 runs from David Warner and Travis Head.