India captain Rohit Sharma weighed in on Cam Green’s controversial catch to dismiss Shubman Gill at gully. He criticised the speed at which TV umpire Richard Kettleborough came to his decision and blaming the lack of camera angles on offer.
Requiring a world-record 444 runs to win the WTC final, India swiftly reached 41-0 before Gill edged to Green off Scott Boland. Green, who had taken a blinder in the first innings to remove Ajinkya Rahane, reacted well to pick up the ball one-handed. However, this time it was unclear whether the ball was grounded as the all-rounder took the catch.
The soft signal rule had been scrapped for the WTC final, leaving Kettleborough to deem the catch clean and Gill out.
Speaking after India’s 209-run loss on day five, Rohit emphasised his disappointment at how the umpires arrived at their decision. He suggested that the WTC should use the IPL as a blueprint for future TV umpire decisions.
“The third umpire should have seen more replays. I think it was three or four times he saw the catch and he was convinced,” said Rohit. “More camera angles should have been shown, there was only one or two camera angles that were shown. We’ve got more angles in IPL, we have 10 different angles in IPL.
“I don’t know why, in a world event like this, there was no ultra-motion or any kind of zoomed image. That was what I was a little disappointed with.”
Clause 33.3 in the MCC’s Laws of Cricket say that a fielder must have “complete control over the ball and his/her own movement” before the ball touches the ground.
Ricky Ponting suggested on air that the ball had carried and may have touched the surface soon after, while Harsha Bhogle criticised the discrepancies between this decision and the soft signal rule. Shubman Gill tweeted a close-up photograph of the dismissal, accompanied by cryptic emojis.
