WATCH | Tim Paine’s lone appeal results in controversial Moeen Ali departure

11/26/2017

It is very hard to avoid controversies in cricket, especially when two rival teams face each other. On Day 4 of the Gabba Test, after Tim Pain’s lone appeal for a Moeen Ali stumping was referred to the TV umpire, cricket pundits found themselves on two ends of the spectrum about the final decision.

Paine, who played his last Test in 2010, made headlines when Cricket Australia announced his name in the squad for the Ashes against England. For the most important series in World cricket, the selection committee picked him ahead of Mathew Wade and Peter Nevill. Their decision was questioned, during the match as well, after Paine missed a sitter behind the stumps on Day 1 of the Gabba Test.

However, the wicketkeeper seems to have redeemed himself as he was instrumental in getting rid of Moeen Ali through a quick stumping in England's second innings. Interestingly, he was the only player who appealed for the wicket as Nathan Lyon looked uninterested in even raising his hand.

The incident occurred on the second delivery of the 54th over when Nathan Lyon was at the bowling at Ali. The English all-rounder was batting at 40 and had built a partnership of 42 runs along with Jonny Bairstow - England's last batting combination. Lyon delivered the ball which took a massive turn beating Ali hands down. The wicketkeeper collected the ball and whipped off the bails in one quick motion. He was quick to appeal, but he was the only one to do so. Even Ali walking over to his partner looked confident that he had easily made his crease.

After seeing the numerous replays from the different angles, the third decided that no part of the foot was behind the line and adjudged the batsman out. However, on the last replay, it looked a part of the foot had crossed the line.

"I disagree with that decision," Clarke said during commentary while his partner, Ian Healy, was adamant that the right decision had been made.

"I thought he had something behind the line and I thought the benefit of the doubt had to go to the batsman. That is a huge wicket to Australia. Tim Paine was the only one that appealed, he was confident straight away, but so was Ali. As soon as they referred it, he was very confident.

"I don't think you can clearly say there is something not behind the line, and the benefit of the doubt must go to the batsman in my opinion."