The Sri Lankan team left their fans and the commentators on air mortified as they decided not to review an LBW decision of dangerman Travis Head in the ongoing first Test at Galle.
Head, who opened the innings with Usman Khawaja, raced away to 23 off just 12 balls early in the innings when the hosts were presented with the golden opportunity to send him back.
Pacer Asitha Fernando’s delivery rapped Head on the pads with zero involvement from the bat. Head tried to flick the ball off his pads but was beaten to it because of the seam movement. The southpaw was also hit below the knee which made the height factor of hitting the wickets very plausible.
The on-field umpire deemed it not out, but the trajectory and pitch of the ball clearly showed Sri Lanka would succeed if they reviewed the decision. But to everyone’s bafflement, they didn’t go for it.
Among the shocked were Channel 7 commentator and former Australia captain Ricky Ponting who explained his disbelief in full detail.
“We were all sitting here watching it and we couldn’t believe they didn’t at least have a look at this. You see, it just pitches in line, it straightens back down the line. There were a couple of noises, front pad and then on to back pad. Look at the reaction from the bowler. He was absolutely positive,” Ponting said on Channel 7, referring to Fernando’s reaction who started celebrating the wicket even before the umpire reacted.
“Being someone like Travis Head – the most dominant player so far in this partnership, and someone has the chance to take this game away from Sri Lanka early on, you have got to have a look at that. They failed to and were shown to be clearly out,” Ponting said further on the Fernando ball.
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Strangely enough, Sri Lanka reviewed another LBW decision that was given not out in the 8th over by offspinner Nishan Peiris. However, the bowler had pitched the ball a much outside the offstump and the Islanders lost a review.
As a result, Head made a brisk 57 off 40 balls studded with 10 boundaries and a six before being dismissed by Peiris with the score at 92.
Sri Lanka erred once again to see the back of Khawaja after lunch. The lefthander was batting on 75 when he leaned forward to meet Prabath Jayasuriya’s tossed-up delivery which spun sharply and got a tiny bit of bat for a keeper catch. The on-field umpire said no, but the Ultra-Edge showed clear nick off the bat. Khawaja went on to score a hundred and forged a 100-plus partnership for the third wicket with Steve Smith to lay the foundation for a big total.
Once again, Lanka had only themselves to blame.
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