Perth, Nov 22 India opener KL Rahul was left fuming after being dismissed under controversial circumstances during the first Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test against Australia at the Perth Stadium on Friday.
Rahul was initially given not out by the on-field umpire while trying to defend off Mitchell Starc in the 23rd over, following which Australia went for the DRS, as they felt for a caught-behind dismissal.
On review, third umpire Richard Illingworth felt Rahul nicked the ball following a spike on UltraEdge, despite the bat possibly looked to hit the pad at the same moment. Despite Illingworth requesting a front-on angle, he wasn’t provided one by the producers and had to make a decision through the inconclusive angle from behind the stumps.
On seeing the out decision being displayed despite the lack of conclusive evidence, Rahul shook his head while walking to the dressing room in disbelief, after making 26 runs off 74 balls in the first session. Seeing that decision-making leading to Rahul’s dismissal also left the commentators in disbelief.
"My initial reaction was, was there enough evidence there for the third umpire to overrule what was given. It was not out on the field of play. Did I see enough there for me to be convinced? I didn't see enough, to be honest," said former India head coach Ravi Shastri on Fox Sports.
Former Australia bowler Kerry O'Keeffe agreed with Shastri’s views. "I think he was unlucky. I think he brushed the pad with his bat. There's no hot spot anymore, that would have shown it up. Rahul was disappointed, you tend to know. He threw his arms up in the air. The umpires' decision is final."
Ex-Australia opener Matthew Hayden also had something to say on Channel 7. "His pad and bat are not together at that point in time as the ball passes. It's (bat hitting pad) after, in fact, the ball passes the edge. Does Snicko pick up the sound of the bat hitting the pad? We're assuming (Snicko) may be the outside edge of the bat but that may not be the case."
But former umpire Simon Taufel had a different perspective on Rahul’s controversial dismissal. "The umpire is looking for conclusive evidence and there were a few gremlins … where he didn't get a few camera angles that he wanted. In my view the ball does graze the outside edge."
“We saw with that side on shot there was a spike on RTS with the bat away from the pad, in other words the bottom of the bat hadn’t reached the pad. Therefore rolling that through in its natural course, you may have seen that second spike (on Snicko, to indicate bat hitting pad) come through, had it been rolled all the way through.”
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