AUS vs SA: Steve Smith's exceptional effort at slip goes in vain as Dean Elgar survives a close call

On Day 4 of the third Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground, Proteas skipper Dean Elgar never looked settled as Australia pacers were all over the opener right from the start. Speedster Josh Hazlewood gave him tough time in the middle and eventually got the better of him with an edge in the last ball of his second over. Steve Smith in the slips took a fantastic catch but wasn’t convinced about the same and thus the on-field umpires sent the decision to the third umpire with a soft signal of ‘not-out’.

When the first replay was shown on the giant screens at SCG, the crowd responded with massive applause as it was shown that Smith got his hands under the ball. However, further replays eventually demonstrated that the 33-year-old’s hand then rolled back, and the ball touched the ground in the end - much to the disappointment of the fans present in the stadium.

The key frame for the third umpire, who rules this as not out #AUSvSA pic.twitter.com/moJxnldXxX

— 7Cricket (@7Cricket) January 7, 2023

“(The ball) has actually carried into his hand on the full. That has not bounced before it hit his hand, but you heard the third umpire say ‘his fingers have split’. So, they’re trying to check with his fingers being split if any part of that ball has actually hit the grass after it’s gone into his hand on the full.

“The ball has not bounced before it’s got to him; it’s gone into his hands on the full. And now the judgement that the third umpire has to make now ... does the ball then go down onto the ground and up? It’s very, very hard to tell, even from the angle that we’ve got,” Ricky Ponting, who was part of the commentary team, said on-air.

Former umpire Simon Taufel explained Richard Kettleborough’s decision

Legendary umpire Simon Taufel, who was tracking the development later explained the reason behind Richard Kettleborough’s decision. The 51-year-old said that it was a very difficult decision and revealed that the soft signal might have played a part in the decision.

“A very difficult one again for the third umpire to go through. You can see the ball goes into the hand and it can not touch the ground through that process, but we must remember that the soft signal process has been tweaked a little bit by the ICC. This decision was entirely in the hands of the third umpire and not the on-field umpires,” Taufel said.

However, despite getting a life-line, Elgar couldn’t make the most of it as the 35-year-old was dismissed on 15 by the same bowler.

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