“100%. No denying it whatsoever, 100%,” Smith told Fox Sports at the lunch break when asked if he got his hands under the ball. “But the umpire has made the decision. We’ll move on.”
The incident occurred in the eighth over after India chose to bat in Sydney, off the first ball Kohli faced. He edged Scott Boland to second slip, where Smith dived low to his right and appeared to catch the ball close to the ground before scooping it up in the air towards gully, where Marnus Labuschagne completed the catch. The on-field umpires referred the catch to the TV umpire Joel Wilson, who eventually judged that the ball had touched the ground just before Smith scooped it into the air towards Labuschagne.
Speaking on Channel 7, former ICC umpire Simon Taufel said “he could certainly understand what the third umpire’s done there.”
“I think you described it very well when you said that depending upon which side of the fence you sit on you could probably build a case for either decision to be given,” Taufel said. “Listening to Joel Wilson’s language there, where he said the fingers were underneath the ball and then he’s seen it roll on to the ground, by his own language he is telling us that he believes he’s seeing that ball on the ground.
“So, there are two things that the TV umpire here is looking for. One is fingers underneath the ball. He was satisfied there. But then he believes through those pictures that he’s clearly seen the ball on the ground. And here’s the challenge, slowing it right down with slow-mo. Play it at real speed and it looks pretty good. I can certainly understand what the third umpire’s done there. He believes he’s seen the ball on the ground and called it way he’s seen it. Normally the ICC protocol on fair catches is if you see the fingers underneath the ball, that’s good to maintain a fair catch. But here’s the problem: the on-field umpire’s no longer have the soft signal and make the decision, it’s purely in the hands of the television umpire now.”
Having survived that close call first ball, Kohli was unbeaten on 12 off 48 balls at lunch on the first day of the fifth Test in Sydney, where India were 57 for 3 in a match they must win to draw the series and retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
