Jofra Archer shockingly bowled back-to-back beamers on Day 2 of Boxing Day Test

Two ‘unintended beamers’ by England’s Jofra Archer at the end of Day 02 at the SuperSport Park in Centurion between England and South Africa has made several headlines.

The day began with the South African batsmen trying to get as many runs for their side and it finished with the hosts taking a lead of 175 runs. In between, a shocking English collapse happened as they lost their last seven wickets for 39 runs.

The Proteas lost four wickets in the final session but the moment that made headlines was when Jofra Archer, in an attempt to bowl the knuckle-ball, delivered back-to-back beamers. While it was unintentional, clause 41.7 of the ICC’s Test-playing conditions says that any bowler who has delivered two such balls should be suspended from bowling for the rest of the innings.

But the on-field umpires went for the no-ball call, saying that the second ball was actually dipping into the batsman and was a no-ball instead of beamer. This left Vernon Philander and the other South African cricketers including captain Faf du Plessis in anger.

“If you’re at square-leg and you call no-ball you’ve got to stand your ground. At no time did they actually cancel it. For me, it’s plain and simple: we’re playing a game and we’re setting an example for the rest of the people coming into this game. You’ve got to make the right call. That’s why it’s called the purest format. Are we going to tolerate it at another game or are we going to put a stop to it right here?” Philander said as quoted by ESPNCricinfo.

Fans on Twitter were also not pleased by the beamers, calling the bowler unprofessional. One of the users tweeted, “As much as I like what Jofra Archer has done for Test Cricket, I do not appreciate his lack of sportsmanship, for not apologising to Nortje for the two beamers.”