Simon Taufel has explained why Pat Cummins’ dismissal in the second innings of the Boxing Day Test match was correct, despite there seemingly being a gap between bat and ball when a spike showed on Snicko.

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Having secured a first innings lead of 54, Australia reached stumps on the third evening of the second Test at 187-6.

They lost Mitchell Starc on 209 before captain Pat Cummins added 28 with wicketkeeper Alex Carey. Then Aamer Jamal brought a ball back in, and the ball seemed to pass through Cummins’ defence to land in Mohammad Rizwan’s gloves.

Pakistan appealed, and got the decision in their favour. When Cummins reviewed, the Snickometer showed a spike – but a split second after the ball had passed Cummins’ inside edge. He was still given out.

Simon Taufel later explained on television why third umpire Richard Illingworth was right in ruling Cummins out: “This has got to do with the calibration between sight and sound, and of course sound does travel at a different speed to light.

“Before each day’s play, the technology providers do go out and calibrate the sound, particularly. What we are looking at is the spike as the ball goes past the bat, or up to one frame past the bat. It allows that distance between the noise and the stump microphone.”

Carey (53) eventually stretched Australia’s score to 262, helping them sett Pakistan a target of 317. At 110-3 and later at 219-5, Pakistan were in control of the chase as Shan Masood (60), Babar Azam (41), Mohammad Rizwan (35), and Salman Ali Agha (50) all got runs.

But they collapsed to 237 as Cummins followed his first-innings haul of 5-48 with 5-49 to become the first Australian captain to take two five-wicket hauls in the same Test match. He was also named the Player of the Match.

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