- Nathan Lyon’s lucky controversial survival change the day-night Test match image
It was the historical Test match between Australia and New Zealand at Adelaide in November 2015, where it was the first ever day-night Test match in history and also it was the first ever pink ball used in the international cricket. It was the 3rd and final Test of the three-match Test series between the two teams where Australia was leading 1-0 before the final match. However, the historical match could not avoid controversies at the end.
After New Zealand bowled out for just 202 runs in their 1st innings, Australia went on a big trouble as they were at 116/8 at one stage.
When the controversial stage occurred, Australia was at 118/8 when Nathan Lyon was batting along with Peter Nevill while New Zealand left-arm spinner Mitchell Santner was bowling to Lyon. It was the fuller length ball which Lyon went to play a sweep shot but failed to properly connect the ball as the ball went on to the air and took the catch by Kiwi slip fielder Kane Williamson. New Zealand made a great appeal but the umpire gave not out. So New Zealand took the review of that decision.
The Hot Spot showed a little mark (the mark occurs if anything touches with the bat) on to the Lyon’s bat while the real-time Snicko didn’t flicker in the slightest. However, the real-time Snicko is not producing the real decisions every time because Snicko could not catch the every reaction properly. So every umpire gives preference to the Hot Spot instead of Snicko but surprisingly at that time, the third umpire Nigel Llong preferred to the Snicko and gave not out while Hot Spot was clearly showing that the ball hit the top of the bat.
That controversial decision changed the game highly as Australia won the match by 3 wickets while that Lyon-Nevill partnership changed the match.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmomWPfkcO4