KL Rahul’s controversial dismissal shocks batter; Deep Dasgupta, Sanjay Manjrekar slams umpire and local broadcaster for cheating
KL Rahul was given out controversially by the third umpire during the first innings of the opening Test in Perth. Mitchell Starc’s delivery passed outside the edge of the bat, and Australia thought that Rahul had nicked it. However, the onfield umpire refused to give the decision in the host team’s favor, forcing Pat Cummins to take a DRS.
The third umpire checked a few replays but didn’t give importance to the fact that the bat had also touched the pad the moment the ball passed the outside edge. He didn’t even ask for more angles from the local broadcaster and hurriedly overturned the decision, leading to the dismissal of Rahul, who was looking comfortable in the middle.
The right-handed batter didn’t like the decision and was seen saying something to the onfield umpire. Former players Wasim Akram, Sanjay Manjrekar, and Deep Dasgupta slammed the third official, Richard Illingworth, and the broadcasting channel for not giving angles to the decision-maker.
“It is shocking that the third umpire didn’t look at things from different angles. This is going to create controversy. The ball went past the edge of the bat, but the willow hit the pad at the same time. This should have been considered by the third umpire but he ignored it,” Deep Dasgupta said.
Manjrekar was more critical. “We don’t have control over the local broadcaster. They didn’t give enough angles to the umpire. In India, we provide four or five angles to the umpire. The angles provided in KL Rahul’d dismissal were not conclusive. If the snickometer had shown two spikes, KL Rahul was out but it should just one and the benefit of the doubt should have gone to the batter,” Manjrekar said.
Akram was also stunned. “This is a debatable decision and the umpire should have taken time before giving the decision,” he said.
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