Tom Latham was left unimpressed after a caught decision went England’s way, following confusion over whether the ball lobbed off Latham’s gloves or arm guard on the way to Joe Root in the slips.
In the 21st over of New Zealand’s first innings, Latham tried to reverse sweep Jack Leach but ended up missing the ball. It seemed to catch a part of his right glove – or arm guard – before it lobbed up to Root for an easy offering.
The umpire Chris Gaffaney gave it out, but Latham reviewed it, seemingly certain that the ball had hit his arm guard as he pointed at it. Third umpire Aleem Dar analysed the footage, going through multiple angles before he noted: “Looks like it’s just touched the top of the gloves, on the wristband.”
Latham walked off shaking his head. “Tom Latham can’t believe it, he says it’s off the arm guard,” remarked the commentator Scotty Stevenson.”Aleem Dar has adjudged it to have touched a part of the glove.”
“And it’s a huge call in the context of this Test match, and the head shake says it all from Tom Latham”.
The confusion probably stemmed from the fact that, on front-on replays, the ball appeared to be coming off the arm guard, while on side-on replay, it’s appearing to push off the band of the glove.
And while Latham looked unhappy after the call, commentator Craig McMillan felt there was no issue with the decision.
“It might not hit the physical glove but it hits that inch and a half bit of armband – that counts as the glove,” he said. “It’s one of those decisions where, if things aren’t going your way it tends to go against you.
“This [front-on replay] looks like it hits the arm guard first, there, but it’s actually hit the glove or the arm one frame before. [On the other replay] the ball will go another frame and hit the strap on the arm guard. That is the difference.
“No issue at all with the review, he had to go upstairs, and a very good decision by Chris Gaffaney because it all happened so quick. In real time it’s hard to get right.”
Others on social media too chimed in:
Latham was out. You can't claim that it hit the armguard, and that you are therefor not out, if the ball clips the part of the armguard that overlaps with the batting glove. #NZLvENG
— Tunku Varadarajan (@tunkuv) February 25, 2023
That’s a rubbish decision. Latham should feel hard done by there @BLACKCAPS #NZLvENG
— Justin Flitter (@JustinFlitter) February 25, 2023
Glove or arm guard? There's a case for the mythical "umpire's call" https://t.co/Kd8zjLKVqv
— Rick Eyre (@rickeyrecricket.com on Bluesky) (@rickeyrecricket) February 25, 2023
