During moments of uncertainty in cricket, third umpire is urged to review decisions but sometimes even the third umpire gets confused while giving a decision. Such an incident happened during the third T20 played between South Africa and Pakistan on Wednesday at SuperSport Park in Centurion, when third umpire took a long time to confirm a decision of run out.
During the 12th over of Pakistan batting, Shoaib Malik hit a shot towards leg gully and looked to take a single. However, the ball landed directly in fielder Andile Phehlukwayo’s hand who threw it quickly to wicket keeper Heinrich Klaasen. Non-striker Hussain Talat started running at first but later he changed his mind and went back to non-striker’s end. A confusion occurred between both the players which resulted in a run out.
Since both the players were running in the same direction when Klaasen blew the stumps, on-field umpires enquired with third umpire about the run out. Although it was quite clear that Malik was out as he was behind Talat when stumps was hit, third umpire took long time to assess the dismissal. Have a look at the video.
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The top umpire went through many replays in slow motion mode to finally conclude who was out. He also used virtual lines drawn on pitch to find out who was behind when the bails where removed by Klaasen. Although Malik was sure he was out, he had to wait on the pitch for the final decision from the third umpire.
The match was won by Pakistan as they set a target of 169 for hosts South Africa while batting first. In reply, hosts could score only 141/9, losing the match by 27 runs. The T20 match ended Pakistan’s tour to South Africa. It was a sad tour for Pakistan as they lost the Test, ODI as well as the T20 series.