Watch: Commentator's 'Spirit Of Cricket' Dig Backfires, Forced To Apologise

The Shubman Gill vs Zak Crawley incident at the end of the third day's play in Lord's triggered a storm that the attention caught fans, former cricketers and even current stars. As England looked to prevent India from bowling second over before the close of play, Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett went into their shells. Crawley even claimed to have been hit on the hand while trying to defend a Jasprit Bumrah delivery. However, Indian commentators initially refused to buy Crawley's claim, even as the England batter took off his glove and called the physio for help. Later, however, the commentators had to apologise.

"He removed his glove and called for the physio, but the ball didn't even hit his hand. We'll definitely check the replay, but the way he reacted, it seemed like it had hit his fingers," said former India cricketer Deep Dasgupta during Hindi commentary on JioStar. "Well, let them do what they're doing. It shows their mindset. We need this spark in the series."

Dasgupta wasn't the only one doubting England's intentions, with another commentator asking where has 'Bazball' gone?

"Exactly-where did it hit him?" a fellow commentator asked, while another added, "Kya hogaya Bazball ko (What happened to Bazball)?"

Dasgupta then said, "Not just Bazball-let's talk about the spirit of the game too."

One commentator even said that England should've sent a nightwatchman to bat if they were so afraid of facing Indian pacers. "They could've sent in a nightwatchman and dominated this part of the innings. But they can't even survive an over."

As the replay was played on the screen, it was found out that the ball had indeed hit Crawley's hand.

A commentator then said: "Now let's see the replay... ohh, it did hit him. Sorry. Apologies. It did actually hit him."

Even former England captain Michael Vaughan was fooled by Crawley's act. After the end of the day's play, he also called the incident a time-wasting strategy.

"It's as good a piece of time-wasting I've ever seen," Vaughan was quoted as saying by BBC's Test Match Special podcast. "India can't complain because yesterday Gill was down with the hamstring strain - (KL) Rahul was off the field and wouldn't have been able to open the batting." Vaughan said it was equal for both teams.

"Neither team can complain, but what great drama and what a great day. We're in for a fourth and fifth day that will be fantastic."

Alastair Cook, also a former England captain, said the series, which is level at 1-1, needed such drama to spice it up.

"Everyone has been so friendly, but this always happens in a series of five matches. There's little moments after playing against each other so many times," he said.

"(Ben) Duckett was like a dachshund: all those big dogs and he was the one squaring up to (Mohammed) Siraj."

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