Watch: Rahul Dravid and Michael Slater got into a contest of a different kind after the batsman played a pull shot which seemingly landed within the grasp of the Australian fielder.
The appeal came at a precarious stage of the Indian innings in the first Test of the ’01 Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Mumbai. Australia had a lead of 173 runs after the first innings, and India stood at 103-2, 70 runs still in arrears. At this moment, Damien Fleming bowled a short delivery which was pulled by Rahul Dravid and was supposedly caught by Michael Slater at mid-wicket.
Tony Greig raised reservations over Slater’s judgment by asking on air, “Did he catch it? I don’t think so, I thought that bounced.”
Meanwhile, on the ground, the umpire Srinivas Venkataraghavan signalled for the third umpire, even as Dravid gave a rare miffed glare to the Australian fielder.
Slater later seemed to signal that he had taken the catch cleanly. However, the third umpire ruled that the batsman was not out.
Ian Chappell, on air, added “The ball appeared to me to touch the ground, before he had control of it.”
However, things took an ugly turn on the field. Dravid shook his head in disapproval, perhaps displeased at the appeal, meanwhile, Slater walked in an animated fashion towards Dravid and the two ended up exchanging a few words in the end.
Michael Slater was let off after a warning by the match referee Cammie Smith.
You can watch the incident here:
