Simon Taufel opines on Chris Woakes’ controversial no-ball call
In the ongoing Ashes series, Australia has dominated the proceedings so far despite England’s late comeback efforts. However, a recent no-ball call turned out to be controversial as it handed a lifeline to Alex Carey. The wicket-keeper batter was on 21 when he was dismissed by English seamer Chris Woakes but the third umpire took a close look at Woakes’ front foot while landing and he overturned the decision by calling it a ‘no ball’.
Not many things have gone England’s way so far in the series and this call just added up their miserable Ashes. The visitors are trailing 0-3 in the series and have managed to draw just one Test with a valiant effort at SCG. Carey went on to make 49 after but the Australian side were bundled out for 155 in their second innings with an excellent spell of 6 for 37 from Mark Wood.
Simon Taufel provides clarity on the no-ball call
Simon Taufel was one of the best umpires in the world in his times and he voiced out his opinion on the no-ball call. He believe the longer third umpire takes to make a decision, the benefit should be given to the previous call and added that conclusive evidence is required to overrule a decision. He also admitted that he himself wouldn’t have called it a no-ball.
“I’m not sure, too much clarification is required here, I think Ian Botham himself got it spot on. Conclusive evidence is required for that front foot no-ball to be called. The third umpire did take a long time and a lot of replays to analyze and look at that. And that often is a good indicator that if you don’t get conclusive evidence upfront, It’s hard to overturn and rule that it’s an unfair delivery.
“I’m sitting at home looking at those pictures… I don’t think I’d overrule that to call it a no-ball,” Taufel told while speaking to 7Cricket.
Taufel has won the Umpire of the year award five years in a row and his calls have been too good over the years. Meanwhile, England has a chance to finish the series with a win for pride as they are chasing 271 runs despite conceding a 115-run lead in the first innings.
