Published: Nov 06, 2015, 01:50 PM (IST)
Edited: Nov 06, 2015, 01:57 PM (IST)
In any contest across any format of the game, the biggest wicket one can have playing against South Africa is undoubtedly of AB de Villiers. The South African One-Day International (ODI) captain is arguably the best batsman in the world at the moment and he puts a huge price tag on his wicket.
He makes the bowlers world over toil very hard to get the better off him and quite expectedly, the bowlers rejoice the most when they get him out. The same bowlers are bound to get mighty dejected when they’re deprived of his wicket despite getting him. The same happened to Ravindra Jadeja on the second day of the first Test.
Jadeja got de Villiers to edge one his deliveries to Wriddhiman Saha, who deflected it to the captain Virat Kohli in the slips. Kohli took a clean catch and the Indians started celebrating the scalp of big fish. However, Indian team’s perennial villain Vineet Kulkarni — who on this occasion was a third umpire — spoiled the party. After looking at replays, which he found to be inconclusive, he gave the benefit of doubt to the batsman.
However, while checking the replays, it surfaced that Kulkarni had probably seen replay of two different deliveries. The one which he declared a no-ball was perhaps an older delivery. This confusing situation was tweeted by a cricket journalist Freddie Wilde. He a started a series of tweets with the following one:
Strangely, during that no ball deliberation, we seemed to be shown replays of two different deliveries. #IndvSA pic.twitter.com/v38ekamUyS
— Freddie Wilde (@fwildecricket) November 6, 2015
Kulkarni, who yet again managed to upset the Indian team and the fans alike, soon made the amends when he gave Vernon Philander out on a delivery, which seemed to be a no-ball. Wilde’s next tweet threw light on the same:
Despite seeing this footage of Jadeja’s front foot the third umpire has given Philander out. Very strange. #IndvSA pic.twitter.com/oTIebSi9kY — Freddie Wilde (@fwildecricket) November 6, 2015
Wilde ended the topic with his final tweet on the issue:
No ball or legitimate ball Jadeja should be nowhere near as close to cutting the line as he is. Lazy cricket. #IndvSA
— Freddie Wilde (@fwildecricket) November 6, 2015
If true, this is quite alarming and the administrators need to act. The overall standard of umpiring has been poor all through this tour. De Villiers went on to score a fine 63 but luckily India still managed a 17-run lead.
