Ashes 2021, Boxing Day Test: Floating plastic bag interrupts play; netizens blame ENG fans

The third Ashes Test match between England and Australia was disrupted in a bizarre fashion, with a plastic bag floating in the breeze forcing umpires to suspend play for a moment. The incident took place in the 28th over, which was being bowled by debutant Scott Boland, who is the first indigenous Australian to play cricket at the highest level.

The match was interrupted after a plastic bag came floating behind Boland's arm and forced the umpire to halt the game. Pictures of the guilty plastic bag have been shared by Cricket Australia (CA) via its official Twitter handle. 

Meanwhile, on social media, netizens blamed England fans for disrupting the game by throwing the plastic bag out in the open. Several supporters descended on the comments section of Cricket Australia's post, blaming English fans for the delay, as Australia were in command at the time after dismissing three England batters cheaply for just 61 runs. Here's how fans reacted to the post showing the floating plastic bag in the middle of the Melbourne Cricket Ground. 

Ashes: 3rd Australia vs England Test

In the ongoing third Test match, England suffered yet another batting collapse as they were dismissed for 185 runs in 65.1 overs. For the fifth time in the ongoing series, England lost at least one of their two openers for less than 25 runs on the board.

England made four changes to their line-up for the third Test match, replacing Rory Burns, Ollie Pope, Chris Woakes, and Stuart Broad with Zak Crawley, Jonny Bairstow, Mark Wood, and Jack Leach. The tweaks, though, do not appear to have had much of an impact on England's batting.

England skipper Joe Root top-scored for his side with a brilliant fifty but he once again failed to convert his half-century into a hundred. Nathan Lyon and Pat Cummins picked three wickets each for Australia, while Mitchell Starc registered one wicket. Debutant Scott Boland also picked his first Test wicket for Australia. 

Australia's XI: Marcus Harris, David Warner, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Travis Head (vc), Cameron Green, Alex Carey (wk), Pat Cummins (c), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Scott Boland.   

England's XI: Haseeb Hameed, Zak Crawley, Dawid Malan, Joe Root (c), Ben Stokes, Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler (wk), Mark Wood, Ollie Robinson, Jack Leach, James Anderson.

Image: cricket.com.au