Cape Town, Jan 5: It was a day of bizarre incidents in the series-deciding third cricket Test between India and South Africa with Sourav Ganguly avoiding the ignominy of being "timed out" and Munaf Patel losing his wicket off the seventh ball of the over! Ganguly ran the risk of being declared "timed out" for the first time ever in Test cricket history before umpires urged South Africa not to appeal "in the spirit of cricket". And, it turned out that Munaf, who holed out off the first ball he faced in India's second innings, was actually made to bat off the seventh ball of Dale Steyn's over. The umpires apparently lost count of the balls over the drinks break and gave Steyn a seventh ball at a crucial time because Munaf's dismissal brought an end to India's innings.
Both the incidents reflected poorly on the standard of umpiring and were clearly avoidable. As far as the first incident was concerned, Sachin Tendulkar was to come out to bat at his usual No 4 position at the fall of India's second wicket. Just as Tendulkar strode out of the dressing room, he was prevented from going out in the middle by match officials in a late realisation of the fact that he had been absent from the field during South Africa's essay. Tendulkar was absent from the field for 18 minutes at the end of South Africa's first innings yesterday and according to the law, he could resume playing again only after the same amount of time had elapsed in India's innings. But India lost their first two wickets within 12 minutes of start of play, rendering Tendulkar ineligible for batting at his usual position.
As no batsman appeared in sight, the South Africans drew the attention of umpires on "timing out" the batsman since the rule stipulates that a new batsman must replace the dismissed one within three minutes. No Indian batsman appeared on the ground for nearly six minutes but an appeal was not made because umpires told the South African team that it was their fault. Also the stump mike caught the umpire's voice as saying an appeal should not be made in the spirit of cricket. According to the Indian team spokesman, Tendulkar was padded up to go into the middle before the fourth umpire informed him about the situation.
V V S Laxman, apparently, was padding up in the bathroom and since word could not reach him, it was Sourav Ganguly who was asked to join his skipper Rahul Dravid out in the middle. South African media officer Gordon Templeton said according to the rules, Ganguly could have been timed out but the team did not appeal as it took into account the "special" circumstances. "According to the rules, Sourav Ganguly could have been timed out but because of special circumstances in that the fourth official got to the dressing room late, he was not timed out," Templeton said. (Agencies)
