New Delhi: Rohit Sharma was not very “accepting” of Rishabh Pant’s dismissal on the third and final day of the third Test match against New Zealand as India were whitewashed 3-0 at home. The Indian skipper weighed in on the contentious decision stating that he wasn’t sure why the on-field decision was overruled. Pant’s quick 57-ball 64 came to a halt in some controversial fashion in the second over after the Day 3 Lunch of the Mumbai Test.
It was the 22nd over of India’s chase when Pant danced down the wicket to Ajaz Patel and after misreading the pitch of the ball, he lunged forward in defence to overlap the delivery. The ball went past his bat very close and ballooned up after hitting the pad with wicketkeeper Tom Blundell completing an easy catch. Umpire Richard Illingworth ruled it ‘not out’ before New Zealand referred the decision, utilising their last review.
During the review, UltraEdge picked up a spike right when the ball passed the bat. But at the same time, Pant’s bat also seemingly made contact with his front pad which looked to be the case for his on-field argument with the umpires. Third umpire Paul Reiffel went through the replays several times before overturning the on-field call. The decision was a major dent in India’s run-chase as they slipped to a 25-run loss shortly afterward and gave away the series 3-0.
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Talking about the dismissal at the post-match press conference, Rohit said, “About that dismissal, I honestly, I don’t know. If we say something, it is not accepted well. 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,” as quoted by Cricbuzz.
“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,” Rohit added.
AB de Villiers gives his take
As soon as the incident occurred, it made a noise on social media across all the cricket pundits. Former South African cricketer AB de Villiers shared his take on his social media handle on “X” as he cited the grey area in the use of technology.
“Controversy! Little grey area once again. 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 in the following post.
Controversy! Little grey area once again. 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…
— AB de Villiers (@ABdeVilliers17) November 3, 2024
Tom Latham on Pant’s referral
The question was asked to the winning skipper Tom Latham as well who said that the fielders close to Pant 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,” Latham spoke to the media.
Latham added that their hunch of taking the final review fell on the right side, and that something like this is out of a player’s control, and that it is obviously up to the umpires to make a decision on it.
