VIDEO | Sarfraz ignores all the fuss to take DRS; leaves team in shock after successful alteration

01/05/2019

While most of Sarfraz Ahmed's reviews are pathetic, he can still leave you in awe with his occasional correct appeals from time to time. Yesterday, while the entire team thought Faf du Plessis hadn’t edged, the Pakistan skipper went upstairs and left the team in shock after getting it right.

South African pitches are under scanner since January 2018 after the Wanderers pitch was deemed "poor" by the ICC, when the hosts took on India. It was almost the same in Cape Town yesterday as the ball bounced sharply off the cracks and hit batsmen on multiple occasions. However, Faf du Plessis trumped that and many other demons to hit a well-crafted century, before edging a Shaheen Afridi delivery to the wicket-keeper.

However, the ball that he was dismissed had typical Sarfraz Ahmed drama involved in it as the Pakistan skipper’s instinct and prowess \remained the standout feature. Afridi bowled a back of a length delivery that opened du Plessis’ stance a bit resulting in him being squared up completely. The unbalanced body position caught the South African skipper off guard who misjudged the delivery and edged it to the keeper.

None though heard a sound of the contact and wasn’t quite interested in the dismissal. But, Sarfraz decided not to pay heed to his teammates' opinions as he directly went upstairs. Third umpire S Ravi, upon checking the UltraEdge, found out that there was a little splinter when the ball went past the bat and change the on-field umpire’s decision and declared du Plessis out.

While the replay stunned the umpires, Pakistani players also left awestruck with their captain’s strange thought process which reaped rich dividends.