Umpire Gregory Brathwaite's Decisions In IND v AFG Tied Match Remind Us Of Steve Bucknor

Steve Bucknor 2.0?

Howlers from Steve Bucknor used to haunt Indian batsmen. His umpiring during the Test match on India’s tour of Australia in 2008 was catastrophic for the visitors. Indian cricket fans breath a huge sigh of relief when Bucknor called it quits to his international umpiring career. After a decade, it seems like Gregory Brathwaite is on that path too.

Brathwaite’s two howlers in the India vs Afghanistan match decided the fate of the match. India would have been in a comfortable position if not for the umpiring blunders.

First, it was skipper MS Dhoni. He was pacing the innings and trying to stitch a partnership with Dinesh Karthik after openers got out. Javed Ahmadi bowled an off-spinner which took a faint edge off Dhoni’s bat and hit his pads. Dhoni was visibly upset with the decision as it was an inside edge.

Not only the inside edge, the replay showed that the ball was missing the stumps. Had KL Rahul not used up the review the decision would have been reversed.

But the 48-year-old did not learn from his mistake. He committed another blunder when a full-pitched delivery from Mohammad Nabi hit Dinesh Karthik’s pad in front of the leg stump. Karthik was shocked by the decision as Nabi is an offspinner and the ball was bound to miss the leg stump.

That wicket turned out to be the turning point of the chase. Karthik was set and looking to finish off the match. The dismissal exposed India’s lower middle order which did not fair well against the spinners.

Twitterati compared him with Bucknor and asked International Cricket Council (ICC) to take an action against him.

ALSO READ: Despite Being Dead Rubber, IND vs AFG Was Still The Most Eventful Match Of Asia Cup

In the post-match presentation he said,

“There were a couple of run-outs and there are a couple of things I don’t want to talk about because I don’t want to get fined. A tie isn’t bad for is, we could have been on the losing side,”

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