Joe Root got an early reprieve in his first innings of the India-England series in Hyderabad, after he survived an lbw call thanks to UltraEdge “murmurs” as the ball passed his bat.
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England made a good start after they elected to bat first in the opening Test of the series. Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett put on 55-0 in the first 11 overs of the innings, before Duckett fell lbw in R Ashwin’s second over into the attack. Ollie Pope was out to Ravindra Jadeja for a scratchy one off 11 balls, bringing Root to the crease early.
Having blocked out Jadeja’s first ball, Root attempted a paddle sweep off the second. The ball passed close to the bat and hit him on his front pad, drawing appeals from the India fielders. But umpire Paul Reiffel was unmoved, with a lengthy discussion between Rohit Sharma, Jadeja and KS Bharat resulting in India opting to send the decision upstairs.
When UltraEdge came onto the big screen, the ball was shown to be passing very close to Root’s bat and gloves before thudding into his pads, with several small spikes appearing on the technology. The small spikes made it unclear as to whether Root had actually made any connection with the ball, with more defined spikes usually a better indication of bat making contact with ball.
However, TV umpire Marais Erasmus concluded that there was bat involved and told Reiffel to stay with his original decision of not out. The decision drew skepticism from several members of the commentary team.
“When we saw the replay and saw what was happening, there were lots of spike marks even before the ball, or lots of murmurs, even before the ball reached the bat,” said Murali Karthik.
Speaking a couple of overs later, Kevin Pietersen also shed doubt on whether the ball had missed Root’s bat: “There were squiggles before the ball had even struck the bat. The ball is a long way from the bat when you can start to see the squiggles. Have a look there, normally that would signal that it’s hit the bat already but there’s a clear, clear difference between bat and ball.”
“I think he’s lucky,” replied Ravi Shastri. “Benefit of the doubt has gone the batsman’s way.”
Root went on to put together a rebuilding partnership with Jonny Bairstow, taking England past 100 for no further loss in the first session.
