Having thought they got the worst of the umpiring (in the absence of the UDRS) in the 2nd Test, South Africa seemed to get really hot under the collar today. Tendulkar was out caught behind in the first over of the day for 49 but he wasn't given (in fairness to the umpire, not even the bowler Steyn went up for it). Then they thought they got Tendulkar caught behind later on, although from the replays I saw it didn't look like that was the case. And finally they acted like small children when a Steyn delivery to Harbajan clipped the outside of off-stump quite hard and they mistakenly thought it was an outside edge. To have seen that the ball hit the stumps but didn't disloge the bails was a brilliant piece of umpiring by Gunner Gould. I'm surprised the match referree hasn't taken any action for the way that South Africa reacted to that one.
It's no excuse for players openly questioning the umpires decision, but wouldn't it be simpler to replay and demonstrate to players and crowd alike that it wasn't out...or in the case of Tendulkar in the first over of the day, that it was out? Unless of course you have someone like Ponting who ignores the video evidence and goes off on one anyway!
Problem is that you then have to show replays when the umpire's made a wrong decision as well. I think they should just show the replays and get on with it, but I can understand why they might be reluctant.
ReplyDeleteI agree they just need to show all replays. They also need to invest in speeding up the snicko build so it can be used too.
ReplyDeleteBut Australia can't complain about Bell being given not out yesterday...Clarke had the same luck earlier in the series. And it meant England had no referrals left when hussey was LBW so he got to continue his innings....