‘He raised his finger as quickly as a gunslinger’: Doull slams ‘poor’ umpiring after Bangladesh’s loss
Bangladesh felt hard done by a couple of umpiring decisions on the field in their group game against South Africa in Long Island on Monday and a controversial field call from Sam Nogajski saw Bangladesh miss out on four valuable runs which eventually turned out to be the difference between the two sides.
Ottneil Baartman struck Mahmudullah’s pads in the second delivery of the 17th over and the ball raced away for four. The ball looked like sliding down the leg side but umpire Nogajski thought otherwise, raising the finger as soon as South Africa appealed.
According to the ICC law, the ball was “dead” as soon as the umpire gave it out and even though Mahmudullah saved himself by using the DRS, those four runs were not added to Bangladesh’s scoreboard.
The passage of play was crucial for Bangladesh as they, in the end, fell exactly four runs short which meant had Nogajski not raised his finger so quickly, the result could have been different.
Former New Zealand cricketer and now commentator Simon Doull, among many others, slammed the umpiring and the existing law after the match.
“Let’s say India are on the wrong end of it in a final. I mean, [the rule] got to change in the way it works. It was a poor decision. That was a howler. The umpire raised his finger as quickly as a gunslinger,” Doull told Cricbuzz.
“There has been some great umpiring throughout the tournament, but this one wasn’t. The result? It was four leg byes [which was not given]. Let’s say it happens in the final ball of the T20 World Cup and one team loses on a really poor decision. There’s got to be a change in the way the [field call] works,” he added.
