The umpiring decision that slowly took the game away from Bangladesh

16.2: Ottneil Baartman bowled a length delivery at Mahmudullah’s pads. Mahmudullah, trying to flick, missed the ball altogether and it hit his pad. 

The South Africans appealed, but there was no way it was out. The ball was headed down the leg stump. However, the umpire, Sam Nogajski, raised his finger. 

Now thanks to the Decision Review System (DRS), Mahmudullah sent the decision upstairs and Nogajski’s call was overturned. However, that call still had a big say in the outcome of the match. 

The ball was enroute to the boundary rope off Mahmudullah’s pad for four leg byes when Nogajski raised his finger. According to the ICC rules, the ball is dead the moment umpire adjudges a batter out. It is the primary reason umpires wait for the action to be completed before signalling for the third umpire on close run-out decisions.

On this occasion, the moment Nogajski adjudged the Bangladeshi veteran out, the ball was deemed dead. Bangladesh were not given those four leg byes. 

The equation that could have been 22 off 22 balls was 26 off 22 deliveries. On the next ball of the subsequent over, Kagiso Rabada has Towhid Hridoy out lbw. It was another dodgy call, this time by Richard Illingworth. Rabada had just turned around in a polite inquiry instead of a full-throttle appeal and Illingworth lifted his finger. The replays adjudged him out on the umpire’s call. Hridoy was the top-scorer for Bangladesh and also their only batter to bat at a strike rate in excess of 100. And the game was turning towards South Africa again after a 44-run stand between Mahmudullah and Hridoy. 

20 off 17 balls.

Jaker Ali, the new man in, played three dot balls to begin, making it 20 off 14 and mounting the pressure. South African pacers, sniffing blood, bowled two tight overs. Rabada conceded only two runs along with Hridoy’s wicket in the 18th over. Baartman conceded only seven. Bangladesh, sliding down, needed 11 from the last over and the left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj was the only bowler up South Africa’s sleeves. 

They eventually lost the contest by four runs, bringing that lbw decision by Nogajski into play. 

In the end, Bangladesh and Mahmudullah had themselves to be blamed. In the final over, when they needed nine runs from five deliveries, Jaker Ali could only muster two runs off a full toss from Maharaj. On the penultimate ball, with Bangladesh six runs away, Mahmudullah received an even juicier full toss from the left-arm spinner. However, the 38-year-old only hit it to Aiden Markram at long-on, falling short of the winning hit by only a few inches. 

While Bangladesh had themselves to blame then, had that been a boundary, they would be chasing run-a-ball for the last four overs of their innings. It would have all but sealed their qualification for the Super 8s, dealing a big blow to Sri Lanka’s chances. 

An old rule clashing with modern-day technology contributed to Bangladesh's defeat. It isn’t the first time a dubious ICC rule has been exposed in a World Cup fixture. But again, Bangladesh would feel they should have still won the game. 

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