Rohit Sharma weighed in on the contentious decision by the third umpire to rule Rishabh Pant out, with the Indian captain stating that he was not sure why the on-field umpire’s decision was overruled. Pant’s sensational 57-ball 64 came to an end in somewhat controversial manner in the second over after Lunch on the third and final day of the Mumbai Test.
In the 22nd over of India’s chase, Pant skipped down the wicket to Ajaz Patel and after having not quite gotten to the pitch of the ball, he lunged forward in defence to smother the delivery. The ball passed close to his bat and ballooned up after striking the pad with ‘keeper Tom Blundell completing an easy take. Umpire Richard Illingworth ruled it ‘not out’ before New Zealand sought a referral.
During the review process, UltraEdge picked up a ‘spike’ just as the ball passed the bat. But at the same time, Pant’s bat also appeared to have made contact with his front pad, something he appeared to be stating to the on-field umpires as third umpire Paul Reiffel went through the replays before overturning the on-field call. The decision had a cataclysmic effect on India’s hopes and the hosts slipped to a 25-run loss shortly thereafter and fell to a 0-3 series sweep.
“About that dismissal, I honestly, I don’t know. If we say something, it is not accepted well,” Rohit began in the post-match press conference. “But if there is no conclusive evidence, it has to go, it has to stand with the umpire’s on-field decision. That is what I have been told. So, I don’t know how that decision was overturned since the umpire didn’t give him out.
“You know, the bat was clearly close to the pad. So, again, I don’t know if it is the right thing for me to talk about. It is something for the umpires to think about. Have the same rules for every team, not keep changing their mind. But again, that dismissal actually was very, very crucial from our point of view. Rishabh was really looking good at that point and it felt like he will take us through. But it was an unfortunate dismissal, got out and then we were bowled out right after that.”
The adjudication was picked up on social media too with former South Africa captain AB de Villiers citing the grey area in the use of technology. “Controversy! Little grey area once again,” de Villiers wrote on X.
“Did Pant get bat on that or not? Problem is when the ball passes the bat at exactly the same time a batter hits his pad snicko will pick up the noise. But how sure are we he hit it? I’ve always worried about this and here it happens at a huge moment in a big Test match. Where’s hotspot?!”
“Fact is there must’ve been doubt. Surely you stay with on-field call then? Unless the 3rd Ump clearly saw a deviation? I’m not so sure. And don’t get me wrong, I have no bias here, just pushing for consistent calls and good use of tech,” de Villiers added.
Reacting to the decision in his post-match press conference, New Zealand captain Tom Latham said that the close-in fielders had heard two noises and decided to review. “Yeah a few of us heard two noises so I guess when you review it in that situation you know you leave it up to the umpire’s hands, so we can’t necessarily see the footage that the third umpire gets so yeah, that’s certainly out of our control in terms of what and what that may look like.
But you know we obviously heard a couple of noises and decided to take the review and obviously it fell on the right side for us so yeah that’s obviously up to the umpires it’s out of our control.”