BBL 2018-19: Adelaide Strikers call back James Pattinson despite third umpire gave him out

The Australia T20 extravaganza, Big Bash League (BBL), got underway on Wednesday with the defending champions Adelaide Strikers taking on the Brisbane Heat at The Gabba. The stadium was almost packed in anticipation of some quality cricket. While they witnessed what was expected, one incident stole the limelight when the third umpire Greg Davidson gave a wrong decision only for the visiting side to win the hearts by calling the batsman back.

The incident took place in the 13th over when the home side was batting. They were in deep trouble with the score reading at 92/6 and Jimmy Peirson and James Pattinson were fighting it out. The former dabbed a delivery from Rashid Khan into the off-side and set off for a single. Meanwhile, Pattinson also responded but had to dive to get into the crease even as the wicket-keeper Alex Carey dislodged the bails.

Baffling decision from the third umpire

The square-leg umpire sent the case upstairs and on replays, it seemed like a straight-forward decision as James Pattinson’s bat looked just inside the crease. But the third umpire decided to complicate the things. He gave it out on the big screen which, at first, everyone thought was a mistake. Even the batsman stood ground presuming that it was a mistake.

But when the on-field umpires consulted with Davidson, the TV official stressed that Pattinson is actually out according to him. The commentators were also baffled and the batsman started to walk back dejectedly. In the meantime, even the Brisbane Heat skipper Chris Lynn had an animated discussion with the fourth umpire on the sidelines.

However, even the Strikers knew that it was not-out and their skipper Colin Ingram showed great heart and decided to call back the batsman. He went to the umpires and withdrew his appeal. This was unknown to everyone at that point in time as the fans thought that the third umpire corrected his mistake.

But later Carey cleared that it was their captain who decided to call the batsman back as they knew that it was a wrong decision. “I’m sure you guys probably thought he was safe. What we could see on the big screen (was) that James was in, so Colin just told the umpires that we all acknowledged that we thought he was in and was free to bat on. Everyone could see it, I’m not sure what was seen upstairs,” he told commentators according to Cricket Australia.

Here’s the video:

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