Ricky Ponting has known as for an investigation into why England have been handed a major benefit within the form of a shiny alternative ball at an important second within the fifth Ashes Test.
In what proved to be a decisive juncture in Australia’s 49-run loss at The Oval, England satisfied umpires to have their ball changed late on day 4 when it struck Usman Khawaja within the helmet.
Under cricket’s legal guidelines, balls might be changed if they’re broken or off form, however umpires should discover a ball that “has had wear comparable” with the earlier one.
That didn’t seem like the case in London.
While England handed over a ball that was nicely worn on one aspect and largely unthreatening, they got a shinier Dukes ball that also had writing seen on it.
The subject was summed up within the 10 overs afterwards, the place 38 per cent of balls beat the sting or brought on a deceptive shot in comparison with the 16 per cent with the outdated ball.
In that interval Australia additionally misplaced the wickets of David Warner and Khawaja to Chris Woakes early on day 5, in the end hurting the vacationers as they went from 0-140 to all out for 334 and depart the collection stage at 2-2.
Ponting, specifically, was fuming over the choice.
“There is no way in the world you can even look at those two balls there and say in any way they are comparable,” the previous Australia captain stated on Sky Sports.
“I just cannot fathom how two international umpires that have done that a lot of times before, can actually get it so wrong.
“That is a huge moment in this game.
“There was double the amount of movement this morning from yesterday afternoon. It’s a huge blunder that needs to be investigated.”
Khawaja stated he instantly raised the difficulty with umpire Kumar Dharmasena, and believed it had dramatically modified the sport.
“The big thing was that ball. As soon as they changed that ball, the first over they changed that ball I knew straightaway this ball is very different,” Khawaja instructed the Nine Network.
“I went straight up to Kumar and said ‘how old is this ball you’ve given them because it feels like it’s about eight overs old’.
“You could see the writing on both sides and it hit my bat so hard.
“I’ve opened in every single innings this Ashes series and I haven’t felt the ball hit my bat as hard as that ball felt when I hit my bat.
“It was disappointing for us because I felt like we had a real stranglehold on that game and today that ball was at 90 overs and it was still hooping around corners.”
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
