‘Controversial’ and ‘wrong’ decision cost Bangladesh the match against South Africa
Bangladesh lost a close contest against South Africa by four runs in the T20 World Cup group stage in New York on Monday.
While some poor late batting by Bangladesh can be attributed to the loss, there was one decision by on-field umpire Sam Nogajski that caused a lot of uproar among fans, and ex-players.
In the second ball of the 17th over, Mahmudullah Riyad was given LBW to a ball by Ottneil Baartman that clipped the batter’s pads and went down legside and hit the boundary ropes.
The fast bowler appealed and umpire Nogajski raised his finger with Mahmudullah given out on 15.
The experienced batter reviewed the decision immediately and replays of ball tracking software ‘Hawk Eye’ showed it going down the leg side and missing the stumps.
While that gave Mahmudullah a reprieve, Bangladesh were not given the additional four runs.
In commentary, Nasser Hussain was seen asking Atahar Ali how costly those four runs could be at that time.
After the match, Waqar Younis, who was also on commentary took to X, formerly known as Twitter to say his piece on what he thought ‘cost Bangladesh’.
“Controversial dead ball law on umpire’s LBW decision needs reviewing. Cost Bangladesh a low scoring thriller against the Proteas,” the former Pakistan fast bowling great wrote.
Wasim Jaffer, former India batter and current Bangladesh U-19 batting coach also expressed his feelings regarding Bangladesh’s bad luck on X.
“Mahmudullah was wrongly given out LBW, the ball went for four leg byes. The decision was reversed on DRS. Bangladesh didn’t get the 4 runs as ball is dead once batter given out, even if wrongly. And SA ended up winning the game by 4 runs. Feel for Bangladesh fans.”, he wrote.
If that decision wasn’t enough to irk Bangladesh fans, Towhid Hridoy was given out LBW in the very next over to a delivery by Kagiso Rabada where the bowler barely appealed.
The other on-field umpire Richard Illingworth gave that decision and Hridoy, who was batting on 37, went for a review immediately.
Replays via ball tracking showed that the ball was just clipping the top of leg stump and Hridoy had to depart with Bangladesh still needing 20 runs from 17 balls and five wickets in hand.
What that result meant is that Bangladesh have never beaten South Africa in a T20I in nine attempts and have one win from two matches.
South Africa meanwhile have three wins from three and are on the brink of qualifying for the Super 8 stage with Nepal, Sri Lanka and the Netherlands making up the rest of the group.
