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Bad Umpiring hurst Indians in Australia |
Yuvraj Singh, that man in sublime touch and a scourge for bowlers from around the world, was on Thursday adjudged caught behind off Stuart Clark by umpire Billy Bowden before the left-hander had scored a run.
At least a couple of inches seemed to separate the line of the ball from the prodigious left-hander’s bat, but there was not even an iota of doubt in Kiwi umpire Billy Bowden’s mind. He was quick to raise the dreaded finger, though Yuvraj did not respond as fast to the decision. The left-hander shook his head in dismay, prolonged his stay in the middle while showing his dissent, before walking off with his head still shaking.
The MCG may not be the easiest place to officiate in, as pointed out by commentator Ravi Shastri earlier in the day while praising the same umpire, but the fact is that a decision here or there can still have a bearing on the outcome of the match. That Mahendra Dhoni was adjudged lbw immediately afterwards to a ball that swung in a lot to hit the stretched left foot did not seem to help the Indians either, which also seemed to be a close decision and Dhoni could have enjoyed the benefit of doubt.
It is just the second day of a tough Test series and there have also been some other doubtful decisions both for and against India, leaving one hoping that umpiring does not become the topic of debate in the series.
It might just be a matter of chance that Sachin Tendulkar got quite a few bad decisions on previous tours of Australia and in a practice game against Victoria last week in which he was given out off a no ball, but the fact is that India have suffered at the hands of the best of the umpires Down Under.
This entry was posted on Thursday, December 27th, 2007 and is filed under India Cricket, Australia Cricket. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
I agree but all that is past now and we have entered the tri-series one day matches phase now. Let’s see how the umpiring is now. Though I would say in the last two test matches the umpiring was lot better