Ashes | Twitter in splits as umpire's double blunder pranks England into taking embarrassing review

Gantavya Adukia

ByGantavya Adukia,SportsCafe Editor

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Officiating mistakes are simply a part and parcel of sport, no matter to what extent technology takes over the roles. Even when the correct decisions are made, they aren't always for the right reasons, as Ahsan Raza proved on Day 5 at the SCG that deceived England into going down an erroneous path.

Ben Stokes wasted a review early in Australia's chase on Day 5 of the fifth Ashes Test at SCG

England failed in their quest to set a par target against Australia on the final day of the Ashes at the Sydney Cricket Ground as Jacob Bethell departed early after an overnight century to see the visitors fold for 342, thus setting the hosts a target of 160. The chase began ominously when Brydon Carse deceived Travis Head with an inswinging yorker first up that was only just going down leg, but their riveting battle through the over was dominated by an absured officiating incident on the penultimate ball.

Carse tried to repeat his trick by going full and straight again, and the idea was validated when Head was left scampering at the crease while the ball flew through the slip cordon for a four. Carse looked circumspectively towards his captain behind the stumps, with the eyes of a bowler aware the batter had nothing to worry about yet wanting a review for the sake of it. However, before his plea could be dismissed, the quick found an unexpected ally in umpire Ahsan Raza, who signalled leg byes before the review timer ran down in contrast to the usual norm. Skipper Ben Stokes, who up until the moment had shown zero interest, suddenly went about exlaiming to his peers in disbelief that had the umpire had signalled leg byes. Carse concurred that if the ball had come off the pads it warranted a review and Stokes eventually went upstairs. However, the replays showed the Kookaburra was nowhere near Head's legs and it had run off a thick outside edge from the bat, leading to a quick upholding of the on-field decision even as Rahza scrapped the leg byes part.

Twitterati was quick to comment on the break of protoco from Raza, even as they regaled how it hilariously robbed England of a review in the most embarrassing fashion.

Strange!

Yeah!

Look like!

Haha!

Favourite!

Let's see!

Lol!

Starc on fire!

Yeah!

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