Kyle Mayers was given out lbw off the first ball he faced against Yuzvendra Chahal in the first T20I between West Indies and India at the Brian Lara Stadium today (August 3).
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He walked off without asking for a review, but replays suggested that he would have been saved had he taken one.
West Indies won the toss and chose to bat on what looked like a good batting wicket. Brandon King gave them a solid start, scoring 28 of the first 29 runs that West Indies scored.
India introduced spin early in the innings, bowling Axar Patel in the fourth over, followed by Chahal in the fifth. It was a comeback of sorts for Chahal, who was playing in his first international game since January and he took no time to get into the action.
His first ball was a slider on Mayers’ off-stump. The left-hander shuffled towards the off-side to play a slog sweep but missed the line of the ball as it crashed into his back leg. The umpire didn’t take much time to raise his finger as it looked rather plumb to the naked eye, especially since the ball had hit Mayers’ back leg while he was bent for the sweep shot.
Even Mayers seemed convinced that the ball would have gone on to hit the stumps and he walked off without going for a review. Replays, however, showed that he had shuffled a fair distance across. The impact was just about in line with the off-stump, and the ball having not turned much would have slid on to miss the off-stump by a decent margin.
[caption id=”attachment_428073″ align=”alignnone” width=”1722″]
The ball-tracker for the Kyle Mayers lbw shows that Mayers would have been saved had he reviewed the decision[/caption]
It brought to an end a painstaking innings for Mayers, who was dismissed for one off seven balls. Chahal, however, wasn’t done yet. Two balls later, he dismissed the other opener, King, trapping him in front as well. To make things worse for West Indies, King used a review and replays showed three reds, leading to them losing a review moments after Mayers had opted out of one when he shouldn’t have.
