As Australia continue to dominate the ongoing ICC World Test Championship Final (WTC Final) against India at the Oval, London, they have been accused of ball-tampering.
The Pat Cummins-led side has thoroughly dominated the first two days of the contest against Team India. Asked to bat first, Australia recovered from 76 for 3 to post a big total of 469 runs. Travis Head and Steve Smith starred with the bat for the Aussies, scoring 163 and 121 runs respectively. After the dominance with the bat, Australia began well with the ball too.
They had India reeling at 30 for 2 before reducing them to 71 for 4 by dismissing Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli cheaply. A 71-run stand between Ajinkya Rahane and Ravindra Jadeja steadied the ship for a while before Nathan Lyon dismissed the latter to help Australia finish the day on the front foot.
Australia
Following their dominance with the ball against India on day 2, Australia have been accused of ball tampering by former Pakistan batsman Basit Ali. The former cricketer has not levelled the allegations against Pat Cummins & Co. but expressed his surprise over no one noticing the tactics from Australia.
“Firstly, I would clap for those watching the match from commentary box, and the umpires. Australia clearly played with the ball and no one is talking about it. No batter is wondering ‘What is happening?’ The biggest example is batters getting bowled while leaving the ball. Let me give you the evidence too.
“Until the 54th over when Shami was bowling, the shine was on the outside and the ball moved back into Steve Smith. This is not called reverse-swing. Reverse swing is when the shine is on the inside and the ball comes back in,” Ali said on his YouTube channel.
Speaking further, Ali explained the reason behind his allegations of ball tampering against Australia. He highlighted the dismissals of Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara while claiming that those dismissals happened only because Australians had tampered with the ball. During the 18th over of the innings, the ball was changed on the instructions of umpire Richard Kettleborough after it had gone out of shape.
“Look at the 16th, 17th and 18th over, the ball on which Virat Kohli got out… look at the shine. Mitchell Starc had the ball in his hand with the shiny end pointing outside but the ball was moving the other way.
“Jadeja was hitting the ball on the on-side and the ball was flying over point. Have the umpires gone blind? God knows who all are sitting there who can’t see such a simple thing,” Ali pointed out.
Pujara lost his wicket when he shouldered arm a delivery from Cameron Green and was clean bowled. Kohli, on the other hand, lost his wicket when a sharp rising delivery from Mitchell Starc made him edge the ball behind the stumps.
“Green bowled with the shine pointing towards Pujara and the ball rocketed back in? I am surprised. BCCI is such a big board; can they not see it? It means that you aren’t focussed towards cricket.
“They are just happy knowing that India have reached the final. Does the ball ever reverse swing in 15-20 overs, that too Dukes ball? I understand that a Kookaburra ball can still reverse, but a Dukes ball lasts till 40 overs at least,” Ali said.