R Ashwin gives verdict after umpire Nitin Menon's controversial Steve Smith call draws boos during 5th Ashes Test

The second day of the fifth Ashes Test turned out to be an attritional affair with Australia choosing to blunt out the England attack and ending up with a 12-run lead. It was some lower order effort that pushed Australia past England's total and talismanic batter Steve Smith is the one who led it. His 54-run partnership off 103 balls with captain Pat Cummins for the eighth wicket ended up being Australia's best of the innings. However, everyone at The Oval, including Smith himself, seemed to have thought that the stand had ended when it was worth just 10 runs when the former Australia captain had seemingly run himself out.

Smith had tapped Chris Woakes to midwicket off the third ball of the 78th over and went for a rather ambitious second run. Substitute fielder George Ealham came in and sent in a gun throw to wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow. At first glance in the replay, it looked like Smith was well short of his crease. He had even started to walk away and the England players and supporters had started celebrating seeing the footage on the big screen, making his dismissal seem like a foregone conclusion.

However, third umpire Nitin Menon went through a few more replays and deemed that by the time the bails had been completely dislodged from the stumps, Smith's bat had crossed the crease. The decision was booed by a majority of the crowd at The Oval. The Australian fans, on the other hand, were overjoyed with it.

Watch the footage of the incident here:

The commentators debated the decision over the course of the rest of the day's play, which only ended up making clear just how good Menon's decision was. This was also reflected in comments on social media, while most were mocking Menon in the moments after the decision was made, he eventually started getting appreciation, including from star India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin.

Smith was on 44 off 85 when the incident happened. He went on to score 71 off 123 before falling to Woakes. However, Australia were then given a boost by a counter-attack from Todd Murphy. The bespectacled spinner scored 34 off 39 balls in an innings that included two fours and three sixes. Australia were eventually all out for 295 in response to England's 283 and the fall of their last wicket also marked the end of the day's play.