Rishabh Pant couldn’t believe it. Neither could some of the commentators as KL Rahul was given out controversially during Day 1 of the 1st Test against Australia in Perth on Friday. Rahul, opening the innings in place of regular skipper Rohit Sharma, was the only India batter to show some resilience against the menacing pace attack, which reduced the touring team to 47/4. Rahul was on 26 off 74 when he survived a close caught behind appeal. Or so it seemed because the decision was soon overturned, leaving the batter irate. The India batter laughed off the umpire’s decision and then hurled a mouthful at the on-field officials before making a slow walk back.
Mitchell Starc got the ball to zoom past Rahul’s outside edge, leading to a loud appeal. After the original decision was not out, Australia thought it through as they had previously lost a DRS against Rishabh Pant. Still, convinced by a sound that Alex Carey heard as the ball whizzed past Rahul, the review was taken. And that’s when things turned controversial.
Watch the video of KL Rahul’s dismissal below:
On the ultra-edge, a little spike was detected, but here’s the catch. The replay showed that the bat hit the pad as well when Rahul attempted to leave the ball at the last minute. It all boiled down to one frame. When the spike appeared on the ultra-edge, there seemed to be a gap between the bat and the pad. Could the sound have been of Rahul’s batting hitting the pad? Well, his expressions sure did say so. Rahul was ready to take strike when he realised that the dreaded OUT had appeared on the giant screen, leaving him shellshocked.
Mark Nicholas while doing commentary, said on air: “I believe there was something tricky at the stump mic. Watch the replay. I am not sure there was enough evidence to overturn that decision. Having said that, the English third umpire Richard Illingworth has done just that. From that [angle], let’s be honest, the frames don’t match.”
The end of Padikkal’s painstaking innings brought out Virat Kohli to a thunderous ovation, but the crowd’s joy was short-lived as he was sent back shortly by Hazlewood. Standing outside the crease to negate the bounce better, Kohli was undone by a ball that took off. Took the edge and into the hands of second slip. Just like that Kohli’s stay was cut short at 12 balls and India were three down for 33. New man in Dhruv Jurel survived a snorter from Starc first up, before he and Pant saw off the remaining 10 minutes of the morning session.
All this was after India’s stand-in captain Jasprit Bumrah won the toss and elected to bat, handing debuts to Nitish Kumar Reddy and Harshit Rana and leaving out Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja.
