Doull calls out ‘poor’ umpiring, system ‘howler’ after Bangladesh defeat

Former New Zealand pacer and commentator Simon Doull called out the wrong LBW decision and the loophole in the law that cost Bangladesh dearly against South Africa in their ICC T20 World Cup match in New York yesterday.

In the second ball of the 17th over, Mahmudullah was hit on the pads by Ottneil Baartman. The umpire raised his index finger to signal out as the ball went to the vacant fine-leg region and hit the boundary cushions.

The decision was rightfully overturned once Mahmudullah reviewed it as ball tracking showed that the ball was missing the leg stump by some margin. However, as the ball is considered dead once the umpire rules it out, Bangladesh lost out on four runs, and eventually lost the match by the same margin.

Doull criticised umpire Sam Nogajski for the decision and the ICC for not trying to come up with a fix for this problem with the law.

“It was a poor decision, that was never hitting the stumps. And he threw his finger up so quickly, like a gun slinger. It was a poor decision. We have to say they have made some great decisions, there have been some very good umpiring throughout the tournament but that one wasn’t,” Doull told Cricbuzz.

“Just imagine if this happens in a final and let’s say India are at the wrong end of that in a final. I know it’s a hard one to do throughout the game but something has to change in the way this system works because that was a howler.

“The result is it should’ve been four leg byes but it doesn’t happen. Now, let’s say it happens in the final ball of the T20 World Cup and one team losses on a really poor decision. There has to be some way of going about changing the way this happens because it’s happening more often than not,” he added.

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