Sorry, the umpire made wrong call
A match official has admitted it was wrong for Black Caps allrounder Daryl Mitchell to be dismissed followed a television replay in Friday’s Twenty20 clash against India. The decision by third umpire Shaun Haig to call Mitchell out baffled fans, with the Black Caps themselves left just as confused after the match. The drama came after Mitchell was given out lbw to bowler Krunall Pandya. Mitchell quickly reviewed after consultation with captain Kane Williamson, indicating that he felt he had hit the ball. That was what the review seemed to show as well, with the “Hotspot” technology showing a mark on Mitchell’s bat. There was no such mark when the ball passed the bat on “Snicko”, but replays also seemed to confirm an inside edge. But there wasn’t enough evidence for Haig to overturn the decision and, with ball-tracking showing that the delivery would have gone on to hit the stumps, Mitchell was given out. However, New Zealand Cricket match officials manager Sheldon Eden-Whaitiri told Radio Sport that upon review, Haig’s call was wrong and explained how third umpire’s decisions were made in accordance with the technology. “On review, we deemed that he made an error there, there was a hot spot, he should’ve gone with that but he’s the first to put his hand up post the event and say he made an error,” Eden-Whaitiri said. “He deemed on the night that the mark on the bat was from the inside edge of the bat brushing the pad. In hindsight that was wrong, there was a clear inside edge on review at the time. “We’ve got a really strong process around DRS . . . there’s always tinkering and there’s always improvements to be made but holistically it’s a very good system, 99 per cent of the time it comes to the right outcome. “You’ve got all this technology but there’s still humans behind it operating it . . . we want them to interpret the information how they see it through their experience, through their time in the game.”