Another NZ-Oz cricket controversy
White Ferns coach Haidee Tiffen is demanding a ‘please explain’ from officials after her team was on the wrong side of a controversial catch decision in Australia’s victory in the Twenty20 series opener in Sydney on Saturday night.
New Zealand went down by six wickets at North Sydney Oval, as the hosts cruised to their target of 163 with 14 balls left. But it was Sophie Devine’s dismissal in the first innings which remained the big talking point for the visitors post-match.
The Kiwi opener was dismissed in the 10th over when third umpire Shawn Craig ruled Australian fielder Beth Mooney had got her hands under the ball to take a clean catch.
Devine had cut a ball to point, where Mooney dived forward to claim the catch, though she quickly indicated she wasn’t sure about the legality of it all.
The on-field umpires gave the ‘soft signal’ of not out, then, after multiple replays Craig deemed there was enough evidence to overturn the decision.
It was a crucial moment in the match – with Devine flying, on 43 off 33 balls, and New Zealand then slipping to 68-3 – and it certainly didn’t sit well with Tiffen.
‘‘I was disappointed with the decision,’’ she said. ‘‘From our point of view, we felt that it had bounced. And maybe it had an impact on the game.
‘‘I will be speaking to the match referee [Steve Bernard] after this [press conference], just to get some clarification around the reason.
‘‘I went and did see him after the incident, and look I understand that they’re still halfway through a job, but I did want to get some clarification around why that decision was made.’’
Australia vice-captain Rachael Haynes was fielding close-by Mooney and definitely felt it was a fair catch.
‘‘I was two metres from it, and there’s no doubt in my mind that it carried,’’ she said.
‘‘I know that it didn’t look great front-on on TV, but I thought Beth definitely got her hand under it.’’
Going into the match, the White Ferns had won seven of their previous nine T20 clashes against Australia, but they will need some improvement if they are to bounce back and win the three-match series, which moves to Brisbane on Monday, concludes in Canberra on Friday and serves as a lead-in to November’s World Cup in the West Indies.
Katey Martin’s 57 not out off 34 had helped get the visitors up to 162-5 after being sent in, but Tiffen felt it was still short of an ideal total, with too many dot balls faced throughout.
‘‘I was pleased we got up there considering where we were sitting,’’ she said.
‘‘We’ve got a deep batting order and I was pleased with the way that we finished. I do probably think we were about 15-20 runs short, and that would have been a bit more of a battle out there. And we do know that this is a great Australian side that has a huge amount of batting depth.’’
With the ball the White Ferns started well in reducing the hosts to 45-4 in the fifth over, but an unbroken 119-run fifth-wicket partnership between captain Meg Lanning (56 off 44) and Haynes (69 off 40) in the end steered Australia home comfortably.