VIDEO | Umpire's call in spotlight again as Mitchell Santner stays on despite ball hitting wristband

SportsCafe Desk

BySportsCafe Desk, SportsCafe Editor

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It was not the greatest of starts for New Zealand at the G but more so, it was not the greatest of starts to the umpiring as well. Third umpire Aleem Dar failed to overturn a catch behind the wicket, despite replays confirming that the ball hitting the sweatband on the glove of Mitchell Santner.

While there has been some incredible cricket on offer in this Test in front of a packed Boxing Day Crowd, that touched 80,000 on Day 2, the umpiring couldn’t have claimed to have any sort of semblance. After declaring Tim Paine out but recalling Ross Taylor in what was two completely similar scenarios, Aleem Dar put himself on the firing line, with the latest blunder inviting criticism from the likes of Mark Waugh, Ricky Ponting, and Shane Warne.

On the third delivery of the 37th over, Mitchell Starc bowled a 139 kph short ball to the Kiwi left-arm spinner, which befuddled the latter to a huge extent. The intimidation caught him off guard as after failing to get on top of the bounce, Santner’s evasive action saved him to a great extent. The damage from the cricketing view had already been done though which saw Travis Head taking a simple catch at short fine leg.

Thinking the edge came off the arm-guard, Marais Erasmus declared Santner Not-out and it didn’t take long for Tim Paine to go for DRS. While on the first look, the ball seemed to have come off the arm-guard, slo-mo showed that it indeed disturbed the sweatband as the RTS saw a spike on it too. 

Considering the wristband was attached to Santner’s glove, therefore it should have to be deemed to be part of the glove and in play for catches when struck by the ball. But there was nothing on Hotspot as Aleem Dar asked the umpire to stay with the original decision. 

While Shane Warne was furious on air saying, “he’s clearly got that wrong”, Ponting showed no mercy on Channel 7, where he commented, “The sweatband was definitely moving on the glove... that has been missed by the third umpire, absolutely as plain as day. If you can't get that right, you shouldn't be doing it. That is a very, very obvious decision to make"

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