Yashasvi Jaiswal’s dismissal late on the final day at the Melbourne Cricket Ground more or less sealed the victory for Australia, as a dramatic ending to the fourth Test match of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy came about with its own fair share of controversy.
Jaiswal scored 84 runs in a patient innings of 208 deliveries, and India looked set to play out the draw and take the series to Sydney for a deciding game. However, a collapse in the third session meant Australia were able to seal a crucial 184-run win to take a 2-1 advantage.
The young southpaw was dismissed in controversial fashion, gloving a delivery down leg off Pat Cummins for Alex Carey to complete a catch. On-field umpire Joel Wilson, however, gave not-out on the pitch, meaning Cummins immediately reviewed.
The referral went up to Bangladesh third umpire Sharfuddoula Saikat, who watched the replay and noticed that there was an evident deflection off Jaiswal’s gloves following the pull stroke. However, when requesting to see the snickometer, many were surprised to see no spikes register as the ball went near the gloves.
Snicko doesn’t match visual feedback
Sharfuddoula, who became the first Bangladeshi to be nominated to the ICC’s Elite panel of umpires in 2024, requested to see alternative angles, and ultimately asked Wilson to reverse his on-field decision after seeing an indentation in Jaiswal’s gloves upon contact. The TV umpire used that and the visible deflection of the ball to judge there was contact, even if snicko didn’t register anything in the moment.
While Jaiswal was disappointed with the decision and tried to plead his case to the on-field umpires, Wilson and Michael Gough, the decision stood and spelled the nearing of the end for India, with the last recognised batting pair broken up.
Sharfuddoula is set to be an umpire in the final Test match at the SCG as well, but received credit for following a clear and precise process on his way to making the decision, serving what seemed like good instincts. Sharfuddoula has served as an umpire in 130 international matches, including 15 Tests, and 67 times throughout his career as TV umpire, making him one of the more experienced umpires in world cricket.
