Marcus Harris rode his luck and scored a fighting 74 in 138 deliveries, including five boundaries.
The ongoing Australia A and India A tour has already had a few controversies, especially involving the umpires. Another eventful passage of play occurred on the second delivery of the 42nd over when Marcus Harris survived a close call.
Tanush Kotian, the off-spinner, bowled a tossed-up delivery on the leg-stump line, to which Harris tried working with the line and flicked it towards the leg-side region. However, he couldn’t get it from the middle of the bat and seemed to have edged it before the ball flew to the slip region, where the fielder completed a straightforward catch.
India A fielders started celebrating, for they thought it was definitely out, but the umpire remained unmoved. When India A players noticed that the umpire hadn’t raised his finger, they started appealing aggressively, with the bowler literally pleading to deem it out.
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However, the umpire calmed things down with his gesture, suggesting he wouldn’t give it out and asking to resume the play. India A players stood there in frustration but had to continue after a few minutes, for the decision maker felt no bat was involved before the ball deflected to first slip.
After a riveting day, Marcus Harris chatted with the reporters about this incident. Harris clarified that he didn’t know whether he nicked the ball and would have returned had the umpire raised his finger.
“I hit my pad on the way through. Hence why I stood my ground. Then the umpire gave it not out, so I was like, I don’t know. But then we watched the replay and I think the boys said they watched it 20 times and you couldn’t really tell. So the god’s honest truth was I wasn’t sure. But if they reviewed it and said you’d hit it and got caught, I would have [thought] fair enough. It just went my way.”
He was really lucky throughout his stay, for several balls went past his bat’s edge while also nicking one just short of the wicketkeeper apart from this incident where he seemed to have edged it. Harris rode his luck and scored a fighting 74 in 138 deliveries, including five boundaries.
No other batter could score a fifty for Australia A, with Corey Rocchiccioli (35) being the next-highest run-scorer in the innings. Eventually, they bundled on 223, but Harris’ knock ensured a handy 62-run first-innings lead for Australia A on a tricky batting deck.
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