Bangladesh lost a close contest against South Africa by four runs in the T20 World Cup group stage in New York on Monday (10 June). While some poor late batting by Bangladesh can be attributed to the loss, there was one decision by on-field umpire Sam Nogajski that caused a lot of uproar among fans, and ex-players. In the second ball of the 17th over, Mahmudullah Riyad was given LBW to a ball by Ottneil Baartman that clipped the batter's pads and went down legside and hit the boundary ropes.
The fast bowler appealed and umpire Nogajski raised his finger with Mahmudullah given out on 15. The experienced batter reviewed the decision immediately and replays of ball tracking software 'Hawk Eye' showed it going down the leg side and missing the stumps. While that gave Mahmudullah a reprieve, Bangladesh were not given the additional four runs.
In commentary, Nasser Hussain was seen asking Atahar Ali how costly those four runs could be at that time. After the match, Waqar Younis, who was also on commentary took to X, (formerly known as Twitter) to say his piece on what he thought 'cost Bangladesh'. "Controversial dead ball law on umpire's LBW decision needs reviewing. Cost Bangladesh a low scoring thriller against the Proteas," the former Pakistan fast bowling great wrote.
Wasim Jaffer, former India batter and current Bangladesh U-19 batting coach also expressed his feelings regarding Bangladesh's bad luck on X (formerly known as Twitter). "Mahmudullah was wrongly given out LBW, the ball went for four leg byes. The decision was reversed on DRS. Bangladesh didn't get the 4 runs as ball is dead once batter given out, even if wrongly. And SA ended up winning the game by 4 runs. Feel for Bangladesh fans.", he wrote.
Messenger/Hasan
