Steve Smith could not believe the outcome of a DRS review that saw him dismissed lbw in Australia’s 2023 World Cup match against South Africa, shaking his head repeatedly as he walked from the field.

Smith had work to do when he came to the middle, with Australia 27-1, which soon became 27-2, in pursuit of 312 to win.

He and Marnus Labuschagne looked to stitch together a recovery partnership, taking the score to 50, when Kagiso Rabada struck Smith on the pad as he missed a leg glance. The shout initially looked to be heading down the leg side, and the on-field umpire agreed, but South Africa opted to review. Ball tracking projected that the delivery would have gone on to hit the stumps, and Smith was on his way.

“You can shake your head as many times as you want, but it’s crashing into the stumps,” quipped Matthew Hayden on commentary.

There was disbelief on social media too, with Shaun Pollock, also on commentary, explaining who a glitch in the initial display of the ball-tracking technology may have added to Smith’s confusion. Instead of displaying an animation tracing the path of the ball, as is standard, it only showed the final image from behind.

Not sure who’s more shocked by that DRS verdict. Steve Smith as he dragged himself off the ground or umpire Joel Wilson as he raised his finger. Amazing call #CWC23 #AusvSA

— Bharat Sundaresan (@beastieboy07) October 12, 2023

“This is what you normally would have seen,” said Pollock. “You would have seen the ball hit the pad and then go on to make enough contact with the stump. I think the South African’s reviewed it more in hope than 100 per cent conviction, and there’s two perplexed Australian batters at the crease. I think that actually came, honestly, because we didn’t see that part, the one we’ve just looked at, the replay. We just saw the outcome of the ball hitting the stumps.”

Smith’s puzzlement at lbw decisions was a theme of the English summer, given out lbw three times in the County Championship ahead of the 2023 Ashes.

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