Just as in the first innings, Yashasvi Jaiswal again walked back to the pavilion on Monday with a disconsolate look.
On this occasion though, it wasn’t a run-out dismissal. Instead, the third umpire had overruled the on-field umpire’s decision to adjudge Jaiswal out caught behind at a crucial phase of the fourth Test in Melbourne on its final day even when Snickometer had failed to spot any spike as the ball passed his bat.
However, there was a clear deviation of the ball as it passed Jaiswal’s bat. Captain Rohit Sharma, pragmatic in his views on the matter, said Jaiswal’s bat “did touch the ball”.
“I don’t know what to make of it because the technology didn’t show anything, but with the naked eye, it seemed like he did touch something,” Rohit said at the post-match news conference.
“I don’t know how the umpires want to use the technology. But in all fairness, I think he did touch the ball.”
He, however, also expressed disappointment over his team being at the receiving end of such debatable decisions. “It’s about the technology which we all know is not 100 per cent. It’s just that we are more often than not falling on the wrong side of it.”
Sunil Gavaskar, though, did not accept the decision which placed visual evidence ahead of the flatline on Snickometer. “The defection can be an optical illusion.
“If there is technology, one should use it. You cannot make a decision based on what you see and ignore the technology,” Gavaskar said.
Simon Taufel, a former ICC elite panel umpire, voiced his support for third umpire Sharfuddoula Ibne Shahid Saikat. “With the technology protocols, we do have a hierarchy of redundancy and when the umpire sees a clear deflection off the bat, there’s no need to go any further and use any other form of technology to prove the case.
“The clear deflection is conclusive evidence. In this particular case, what we have seen from the third umpire is they’ve used a secondary form of technology which, for whatever reason, hasn’t shown the same conclusive evidence of audio to back up the clear deflection.
“In the end, the third umpire did the right thing,” Taufel told Channel 7.