BPL 2019: After David Warner, Steve Smith perishes to a controversial decision

After all the speculations surrounding his participation in the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), Steve Smith played for Comilla Victorians in their encounter against the Sylhet Sixers at the Sher-E-Bangla National Stadium. He stepped out for the toss alongside David Warner, his Australian teammate and the captain of the Sixers. The 29-year-old had a decent match as the Victorians won by four wickets.

However, from the personal perspective, he didn’t quite have a memorable match. He came to bat after the Victorians lost Evin Lewis and Imrul Kayes with the score at 21. With the Victorians requiring 107 runs from 97 deliveries, captain Smith had a massive responsibility on his shoulders to guide his team. But he could only manage 16 runs from 17 balls and only churned out a solitary boundary in his knock.

Steve Smith perishes cheaply

He perished with the score at 51 in 8.1 overs and at that point in time, the Victorians needed 77 runs. Fast bowler Al Amin Hossain dished out a wide delivery and Smith tried to steer the leather down to the third man region. Nevertheless, he seemed to have knicked the ball to Liton Das. The on-field umpire didn’t give him out. But Das was absolutely sure and he asked for the Decision Review System (DRS).

Hossain was also sure about Smith, edging the ball to the wicketkeeper. The umpire then sent the decision to the third umpire Sharfuddoula, who checked the no-ball initially and the ball was found to be completely legitimate. Surprisingly, there was no Snickometre in the T20 tournament and hence, it was difficult for the umpire to decipher whether the ball had found the bat’s outside edge.

There wasn’t much of a deviation after the ball passed the bat and therefore, the umpire took quite some time to make up his mind. In the end, after taking a close look, Steve was adjudged ‘Out’. It was a massive scalp for the Sixers as Smith was threatening to take the match away from them in Dhaka, bringing forth all his experience of playing at the highest level.

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