catch
catch

On otherwise quite an uneventful day, the opening day of the first Test between India and England at Rajkot saw Joe Root getting dismissed in a controversial manner that has started a huge debate on whether his dismissal was legitimate or not.

Root, who was batting on 124, drove a Umesh Yadav delivery in the 81st over of the day, straight back to the bowler. However, the Indian bowler looked like making a mess of the catch. Yadav comfortably pouched the catch but in an attempt to celebrate the wicket, he threw the ball immediately in the air and then realizing his mistake rushed back to catch the ball again only to fail.The incident brought back the memories of 1999 cricket World Cup when Herschelle Gibbs did something similar trying to take a catch against Australia.

Meanwhile,Root was convinced that the catch was not clean and asked for a review. However, TV umpire, Rod Tucker, was convinced that the catch was fair, much to the relief of the Indian camp who were toiling hard for a breakthrough.

Here is the video of the catch:

Now, the rule says the fielder should be in complete control of a catch for it to stand. According to Law 32 (mode of dismissal: caught) of the cricket rule-book, “The act of making the catch shall start from the time when a fielder first handles the ball and shall end when a fielder obtains complete control both over the ball and over his own movement”.

TV replays clearly showed that the Yadav was in complete control of catch before throwing it in the air and so there should be no doubt that the catch was legitimate.

Earlier, the English batting sensation once again bailed his team out from a tough situation as his brilliant knock of 124 runs and Moeen Ali’s unbeaten 99 helped the visitors to end the first day on 311 for 4.