West Indies skipper Jason Holder minced no words as he expressed his displeasure at the sub-par umpiring that was on display during the game against Australia at Trent Bridge on Thursday.
The two on-field umpires Chris Gaffney and Ruchira Palliyaguruge had four decision overturned, in addition to Gaffney missing a glaring front-foot no ball from Mitchell Starc. It was a blatant error committed as Starc dismissed Chris Gayle on the very next ball whereas it should have been a free hit.
On air, the Windies legend Michael Holding called the “umpiring atrocious”, while Carlos Brathwaite dubbed it “frustrating and dodgy”. But as much as he was unimpressed with the umpiring, the Windies allrounder maintained it did not cost them the match which his side lost to Australia by 15 runs.
An elephant can through the gap between Starc’s foot and the pooping crease.
It was a huge no-ball and the delivery on which Gayle got out should’ve been a FREE HIT. #AUSvWI #CWC19 pic.twitter.com/63ESi7X1tg
— Madhav Sharma (@HashTagCricket) June 6, 2019
However, captain Holder, after the match pointed out that he ended up laughing when he saw Starc overstep. Gayle had initially received a couple of reprieves, both time reviewing the umpire’s decision and ending up reversing it.
The first instance was a caught behind appeal, which as per the replays, showed the ball kissing the stumps but not dislodging the bails down. The second was an LBW appeal which pitched outside leg.
“I saw it on the screen in the dressing room, and I just laughed, man. I couldn’t believe it. But again, I guess things didn’t go our way today,” Holder said while addressing the media.
Holder himself overturned two decisions, both lbws. He was given out to Adam Zampa but as per the replay, the ball pitched outside leg stump. The next one was off a sweep shot which the 27 year-old failed to connect. This time, the ball was missing leg. Holder survived both times but showed his displeasure while he was batting.
“I think I’ll just say I just found ourselves a bit unlucky to be on the other end of all the decisions. I guess honest mistakes from the umpires, I don’t want to get into the officiating part, but it’s just ironic. I don’t even know what to say about it, but it is a funny situation where all of them went against us, and then we had to review them, but I guess that’s part of the game again,” he added.
