NEW DELHI: In a bizarre turn of events, third umpire Richard Kettleborough’s decision that gave Australian batter Mitchell Marsh a lifeline late in the first session on the second day of the Adelaide Test left Team India, fans and even commentators in disbelief on Saturday.
The manner in which the third umpire hastily confirmed the on-field call of not out and didn’t even bother to go for ball-tracking on a lbw review stirred up controversy.
The incident took in the penultimate over of the session when India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin hit Marsh’s pad.
As Marsh had come down the track to defend an Ashwin ball, it seemed as if the ball had hit the batter’s pad first before getting the inside-edge.
Ashwin looked really confident as he convinced skipper Rohit Sharma to go for the review after the on-field umpire ruled it not out.
The Snicko then showed a spike with the ball, bat and pad all really close to each other. The third umpire saying that there is no ‘conclusive evidence’ then hastily went with the on-field call without even seeing the zoomed up version and ball-tracking.
The zoom version later showed that the ball seemed to have hit Marsh’s pad first.
Even the on-air commentators were left puzzled as to why the hurried decision was made and no ball-tracking was shown.
Along with the Indian team, the controversial call also didn’t go down well with the fans as they slammed the decision from the third umpire.
After surviving the review, Marsh went into Tea break unbeaten on 2 alongside Travis Head.
In the session, India grabbed three wickets but Marnus Labuschagne and Head fifties took Australia to a lead of 11 runs in the first innings.
