“If we say something, it is not accepted well. But if there is not conclusive evidence, it has to stand with the umpire’s on-field decision”
Rishabh Pant‘s dismissal in India’s fourth-innings chase has emerged as a potentially match-turning moment in the Mumbai Test. He was given out caught bat-pad, with DRS overturning the on-field umpire’s decision, and India captain Rohit Sharma is not sure if that was the right call. Pant stood between New Zealand and a historic 3-0 series sweep with 64 off 57 balls, and before his dismissal India were 106 for 6, their target 41 runs away. New Zealand eventually won by 25 runs.
“About that dismissal, I honestly, I don’t know,” Rohit said after the match. “If we say something, it is not accepted well. But if there is not conclusive evidence, 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.
“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.”
New Zealand had already missed a chance to review an lbw shout against Pant earlier in the day, when India were 59 for 5. Replays returned three reds on that incident. Then, in the 22nd over, Ajaz Patel twice went up in appeal against Pant. Once for a catch at slip. The on-field decision was not-out, and DRS upheld it.
Two balls later, Ajaz spotted Pant charging out of his crease, pulled his length back, and forced the batter into a defensive prod. Pant had enjoyed a lot of success when he had come down the track in this innings, often hitting the ball straight and hard to the boundary. Here he had little choice but to try and adjust, and the ball lobbed off him, into the keeper’s gloves. Ajaz and the close-in fielders thought there had been an inside edge onto his front pad. Umpire Richard Illingworth didn’t. New Zealand captain Tom Latham sent it upstairs for a review.
A spike appeared on UltraEdge when the ball seemed to pass the bat. But the bat and pad were also in close proximity at the same time, which meant the spike could have come from the bat brushing the pad.
When the replays came up on the big screen, New Zealand began celebrating. Pant seemed completely nonplussed until this point – he’d performed a double glove-touch with his batting partner Washington Sundar as soon as New Zealand went up to review; it was their last remaining review. Now he walked over to the on-field officials with his hand extended.
Third umpire Paul Reiffel, in making his judgment, noted that the spike could have been from bat hitting pad. But then, after further replays and rocking-and-rolling of the moment where bat, pad and ball were close together, he changed his mind based on what he thought was a deflection at the moment the ball passed the bat.
Latham explained New Zealand’s thinking about the dismissal at the post-match press conference. “A few of us heard two noises, and I guess when you review in that situation you leave it up to the umpire’s hands,” he said. “We can’t necessarily see the footage that the third umpire gets so that’s certainly out of our control in terms of what that may look like. We obviously heard a couple of noises and decided to take the review and obviously it fell on the right side for us so that’s obviously up to the umpires. It’s out of our control.”
New Zealand had reduced India to 29 for 5 on a rank turner and looked heavy favourites to win. But Pant managed to turn the tide for a while and Rohit felt his wicket had a huge impact on the game. “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.”
Alagappan Muthu is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo
