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England filthy at video umpire howler

Roar Guru
11th July, 2013
16

England were left seething on Thursday after a video review howler left their first Test hopes hanging in the balance.

Star batsman Jonathan Trott was filthy at being given out lbw early in England’s second innings, despite evidence to suggest he hit the ball not being available to the third umpire.

On-field umpire Aleem Dar turned down Mitchell Starc’s appeal, but the Australians wanted the decision reviewed.

Man upstairs Marais Erasmus then overturned the decision despite it emerging he didn’t examine all the evidence.

“Trotty hit it and was given not out on the field. Whatever happened after that I’m not sure,” said perplexed England fast bowler, James Anderson.

“It’s frustrating that it got overruled or overturned. I’m not sure what went on.”

Reports suggested a fault to do with the television broadcast meant Erasmus didn’t see a crucial side-on view of HotSpot which appeared to show a nick before the ball cannoned into Trott’s pads.

Given the malfunction, England were scratching their heads as to why the benefit of the doubt wasn’t given to the batsman and demanded an immediate explanation from the ICC.

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England were left reeling at 2-11, before Alastair Cook (35) and Kevin Pietersen (35) steadied the ship with the home side 2-80 at stumps with an overall lead of 15.

England also felt they should have had miracle man Ashton Agar out stumped for 6, with Australia still 84 runs in arrears.

But Erasmus fairly enough deemed there wasn’t conclusive evidence, and Agar went on to make 98 runs and give Australia a 65-run first innings lead.

Agar said he felt he made it back into his ground when facing Graeme Swann, but England keeper Matt Prior was adamant he’d taken the bails off in time.

“I thought it was out, yeah. But I saw it on the big screen, so hard to tell,” said Anderson.

“(Prior) was pretty confident it was out.”

The bad luck hasn’t been one-sided though, with Australia having three lbw reviews go against them so far in the match, because of the decision of the on-field umpire.

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In the first innings James Anderson was given not out, but Hawk-Eye showed the ball could have been clipping leg and the decision couldn’t be overturned.

Joe Root received the same benefit in the second innings.

In Australia’s first innings, Chris Rogers was given out by the on-field umpire over a line-ball call, which meant that when reviewed, the decision stood.

James Anderson (5-85) and Swann (2-60) got England on a roll early on day two, before loose bowling let the Australians fight their way back.

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