TV TRAVESTY
England left fuming as third umpire rules Maxwell catch didn’t carry
Cricket’s unsatisfactory relationship with technology cost england dear here in their first game of this twenty20 triseries when Glenn Maxwell survived a controversial umpiring call to blast Australia home with an unbeaten hundred.
Maxwell, who had taken three wickets with off-spin in england’s below-par 155 for nine, seemed to be caught low by Jason roy off Adil rashid on 59 with Australia faltering in what should have been a routine run-chase.
Umpire Gerard Abood, who cut an unusual- looking figure by wearing a helmet, called for tV confirmation of his opinion, expressed through his ‘soft’ signal, that the catch was clean.
Yet inexplicably, tV official chris Brown overturned the decision even though he, like everyone in the game, should know the two-dimensional television images always create doubt where none really should exist.
it was a pivotal moment because england had reduced Australia to 98 for four in the 12th over and the dismissal of Maxwell then could easily have derailed a home side who had won their opening game against New Zealand. As it was, Maxwell, left out of Australia’s one- day side amid suggestions of a poor attitude to training, showed his class to reach his century with a six off Mark Wood with the scores level to win the match with nine balls in hand.
‘We know tV always makes it look worse than it is,’ said england captain eoin Morgan.
‘ i agreed with the on- field umpire that it was out and i trust the player’s call but i can understand why it was overturned. sometimes those decisions just don’t go your way.
‘i would say the game needs to look at that but i don’t know how. i don’t have the answer. i’m all for reviewing catches if the umpire is 60 metres away and can’t see so there’s no perfect solution to it. Jason said it was out.’
in truth, england could only blame themselves after blowing their chance to make a matchdefining total amid a clutter of self-inflicted dismissals.
then Alex Hales spilled a catch on the boundary off tom curran, surprisingly preferred to a second spinner in Liam Dawson, when Maxwell had made 40. it was to prove an error equally as costly as the tV official’s.
Now, after their sixth defeat in seven twenty20 internationals in Australia, england will need to win in Melbourne on saturday to avoid a two-match shoot- out against New Zealand for the right to play Australia in the final.
england looked well on course for a score of 200-plus when they raced to 60 for one off six overs and 93 for two in the 10th over.
At the centre of that was Dawid Malan, who made 50 off 36 balls, but then one of the all-too-regular collapses that haunt england saw them lose six for 33 in six overs.
‘it was a really bad day with the bat for us,’ added Morgan.
‘We had a brilliant start and were looking at 180-plus but the wickets we lost left us about 25 short of par.’
it still looked as though it might be enough when David Willey took two wickets in the first four balls of the innings, seeing the back of David Warner before swinging one back through the defences of chris Lynn.
But all that did was bring together big hitters D’Arcy short and Maxwell, who put Australia back on course with a stand of 78 in eight overs — ended only by a brilliant return catch from rashid to send back short.
When Wood claimed Marcus stoinis, england were right in the game but another technological decision that confused rather than clarified ultimately proved as decisive as the big show put on by Maxwell.