The contentious dismissal of Hardik Pandya in the opening ODI match against New Zealand sparked a discussion online, with many supporters arguing that the all-rounder was not actually out. Most people felt that Tom Latham’s gloves, not the ball, had touched the bails while Pandya was ruled out by the third umpire.
When Pandya attempted to stop the ball from angling toward him in the 40th over, the incident took place. The wicketkeeper, who was standing close to the stump, caught the ball after it had passed very nearly by the stumps, but one of the bails came loose in the process. The third umpire was then consulted on the matter, and after thorough review, he or she decided in favour of the fielding side.
Latham’s gloves were very close to the bails when the ball was caught in the wicketkeeper’s gloves, which changed the appearance of the ball on TV replays. The third umpire also verified that Latham had in fact picked up the ball behind the stumps, which he did, but because there was insufficient proof, Pandya was given the benefit of the doubt. Before collecting the ball, the TV umpire looked to see if Latham’s gloves were behind the stumps. They were, thus it was a legal delivery, and he was satisfied that there was no concrete proof that the bail had been moved by the wicketkeeper’s gloves.
Ravi Shastri, who was doing commentary at the moment, felt the decision was unfair to the batter. “Oh, it’s been given out! Daryl Mitchell should be happy,” Shastri said on-air. “Should really be happy, because that, if you take a look again as to where the keeper’s gloves are, where the ball is as it passes the stumps, it looked as if the ball was at least an inch, inch-and-a-half above the stumps … Ball clearly looks to be above the bail. You can see as it goes past into the gloves, there’s no red light, it’s only after that. There you go. From that angle you can see that the gloves are closer to the bails than the ball,” he added.
India all-rounder Ravichandran Ashwin also believed Hardik was “not out”. “Forget about split screens and replays, the cut shot from Shubhman Gill proved why Hardik was clearly Not Out,” he tweeted.