Indian captain Virat Kohli was not happy with the broadcasters for their “goof-up” which restricted India from taking a LBW DRS against Matthew Wade during Australia’s 30-run win in the thrid T20I.
After a LBW appeal from the Indians was put down by the umpire, Kohli decided to go upstairs. But he was denied as the replay of the incident had already been run on the big screen. Wade was on 50 off 34 balls at the time and went on to make 30 more runs.
Although the prevailing belief at the time was that India had exceeded the time alloted for taking a referral, Kohli blamed the TV staff for showing the replay of the disputed incident before the 15-second period — which is allowed to review a decision — was over.
“That lbw was a strange one because we were still discussing whether the ball was going down the leg-side or not and within the 15-second time-frame they showed the replay on the screen. We decided to go for the review but the umpire said that they have already shown the replay on the screen,” said Kohli while talking to reporters during a post-match media interaction.
Kohli, who was fielding in the deep at that time, walked up to talk to umpire Rod Tucker before being told that he won’t be able to review.
“I had a chat with (umpire) Rod (Tucker) on what can be done. He said nothing can be done. It was a mistake from TV. But we felt as team management that these mistakes can’t be done at the highest level and especially in an important game. This could be very costly. It was a little bit of a miss from the TV guys upstairs and I am sure we won’t be in a (similar) situation again.”
India had a horrible day with the Decision Review System (DRS) with the team wasting all their reviews. After they failed to appeal against Wade in the 11th over at the right time leading to the controversy, the men in blue also got both their reviews against Glenn Maxwell wrong.
The first mistake came off the last ball of the 15th over of the Australian innings. The hard-hitting batsman went for a reverse-sweep against leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal but missed it and the ball settled in the hands of wicketkeeper KL Rahul. But replays showed that the ball had not touched the bat before Rahul caught it.
India’s next mistake came on the first ball of the 17th over with Maxwell trying a reverse hit against pace bowler Shardul Thakur and the ball going to the wicketkeeper. Kohli seemed uncertain but decided to take a DRS at the last moment. Once again, replays showed the ball had missed the bat before going into the Rahul’s gloves.
Meanwhile, riding on wicket-keeper-batsman Matthew Wade’s 80 and Glenn Maxwell’s 54 and a combined haul of five wickets for 64 runs in 10 overs by spinners Mitchell Swepson, Adam Zampa and Maxwell, Australia defeated India by 12 runs in the third and final T20 International at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
The win restored some pride for Australia as they had lost the series 2-1 after going down in the first two matches.
With IANS inputs