Ricky Ponting known as for an investigation into the ball change saga that flipped the fifth Ashes Test on its head, and now his name has been answered.
Australia was 0/135 and on observe to chase down a mega complete at The Oval that will have secured a 3-1 collection win, earlier than a change of the ball dashes any hopes of a miracle victory.
After simply 37 overs, England obtained their manner after complaining to the umpires that the ball was off form — it gave the impression to be a dud ball that hardly swung.
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The umpires introduced out their field of replacements and chosen a noticeably shinier Dukes ball that also had the producer’s gold font seen on the facet.
Surprise shock, it swung round corners as England rapidly dismissed David Warner, Usman Khawaja and snuffed out any hope of an Australian victory.
Khawaja criticised the method by which the umpires chosen the alternative ball.
“I walked straight up to Kumar (umpire Kumar Dharmasena) and said straight away, ‘that ball looks nothing like the one we were playing with. I can see writing on it’,” he recalled.
“It felt harder than any ball I’ve faced in this Ashes series – and I’ve opened the batting against the new ball every single time.”
News Corp stories the proprietor of Dukes’ ball is ready to launch an inner investigation into the ball alternative saga.
According to the report, there are rumours that the shiny ball in query performed very equally to balls from the 2018-19 batch of Dukes balls that proved a nightmare for batters.
Dukes’ proprietor Dilip Jajodia instructed News Corp: “Every ball we produce for the specific season has got a date stamp on it. It would have 2023 marked on it.
“We supply balls to the ground. These balls are not controlled by the ECB or the ICC, it’s controlled by the ground authority. So on this particular occasion (at The Oval) the balls would be done by Surrey.
“Surrey get the supply of balls from us before the season starts and then they start knocking them in, getting them into wear and tear if you like and in my view, they’re probably not doing it that accurately.”
Jajodia mentioned it was “unlikely but not impossible” {that a} stray 2018-19 ball discovered its manner into the field on the fifth Test.
“I can’t imagine they would risk putting a ball in there with a different date on it,” he mentioned.
“Frankly the match referee should be on top of it.
“We do bang that number in quite hard, so even if the gold comes off the ball is imprinted. It wouldn’t be easy to get rid of it. I’m not saying it’s impossible (it was a 2018 or 2019 ball), but it’s not likely.
“I’m going to investigate myself, because it affects me … my name is at stake so it’s important they don’t misallege something wrong with the ball.”
The ICC swept Australia’s complaints below the rug, issuing a wishy washy assertion that didn’t deal with the precise incident within the fifth Test.
“The ICC does not comment on the decisions taken by umpires in matches,” an ICC spokesman mentioned.
“We can, however, confirm that all balls are preselected before the start of every match and when the situation calls for it, the match officials choose the ball that is closest to the condition of the ball that is being replaced.”
Ponting was scathing in commentary on Sky Sports seeing the distinction between the 2 balls.
“There’s no way in the world you can even look at those two balls there and say in any way they are comparable,” the previous Australian captain mentioned.
“At the end of the day, if you are going to change the ball, you want to make sure you get it right, so it’s as close as you possibly can to the one that you’re changing it from. There weren’t too many older condition balls in there – there were some older ones that were picked up, they threw them back.
“I cannot fathom how two international umpires that have done this so many times before, have got this so wrong … I think (it) has to be investigated.”
England opener Zak Crawley has admitted the ball change “made a difference in the end”, as England dodged what would have been an embarrassing collection loss.
Originally revealed as Ballmaker launches investigation into Ashes ball swap saga
Source: www.dailytelegraph.com.au
