The last test of the Ashes concluded with England’s victory, which squared the series. Australia retained the series. It was a farewell game for Stuart Broad, who took a couple of wickets. Happy ending. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. Australia in the 5th Test, grappled with the English bowlers. The Australians blamed the change of ball for their defeat, which started a whole new controversy.
What exactly happened for Australia in the 5th Test?
On the afternoon of day 4, the kangaroos were gently cruising towards the target of 384. They managed to score 140 without losing any points. Then came the twist in the tail. Usman Khwaja was hit on the helmet by Stuart Broad’s bouncer, which caused damage to the ball. Umpires Joe Wilson and Kumar Dharmasena changed the ball. Only eleven balls were bowled with the replaced ball, and the session ended.
Australia in the 5th Test fell victim to Chris Woakes as they lost both of their openers in consecutive overs. Later, Mark Wood got Marnus Labuschange via catch and slip. Subsequently, Woakes and Moeen Ali caused some serious blows to the tourists batting line and secured five more wickets. At last, Broad sealed the deal for the home team by taking the very last wicket, the perfect end to his career.
Usman Khawaja’s Revelations
After the match, the Australian opener said that Australia in the 5th Test started struggling after the replacement of the ball. His exact words were, “We started off really well. The big thing was that ball. As soon as they changed that ball, the first over they changed that ball. I knew straight away this ball was very different. I went straight up to Kumar and said, How old is this ball you’ve given them because it feels like it’s about eight overs old? You could see the writing on both sides, and it hit my bat so hard.
“So I said to the boys even coming into today to be careful; this new ball is going to be tricky. It’s going to be a lot harder than that other ball. Some things you can’t control in this game It was disappointing for us because I felt like we had a real stranglehold on that game.” He added
Ricky Ponting’s Rage
Ricky Ponting, who was part of the broadcasting team for this series, was not happy about the injustice to Australia in the 5th Test, and he expressed his concerns. The former Australian skipper questioned the wisdom of umpires and demanded an investigation on this matter. His words just cannot fathom how two international umpires who have done that a lot of times before can get that so wrong. That is a huge moment in this game, potentially a huge moment in the Test match, and something I think actually has to be investigated: whether there was the right condition of balls in the box, or the umpires have just, blasé, picked one out of there that they think will be okay to use.”
What Does the Law Say?
At this point, it is important to understand the ball replacement law, so if umpires are convinced that a ball is not recoverable or is damaged, they can replace it with a ball of similar condition and also inform the batting team.
It seems that the ball wasn’t replaced with the appropriate ball; instead, the replacement ball was much newer compared to the previous one, which was obviously disadvantageous for Australia in the 5th Test. Sky Sports data further affirmed it, as it illustrated that the ball seemed to swing more on the last day compared to the evening of the day before.
The ICC spokesperson responded that they cannot interfere with field decisions by umpires. But the umpire’s performance is continuously evaluated.
Did a change in the ball impact Australia’s dominance?
Yes, the change of ball had an impact on Australia’s performance. Their batters struggled, and they quickly fell victim to the English bowling line up which cost them the match. Prior to the ball change, they were dominating in the fourth inning, but after the ball changed, everything changed all of a sudden.
These kinds of things are totally expected when archrivals play against each other. It’s not the first; earlier this summer, Jhony Baisrow’s runout and England’s reaction to that made the news. The home crowd chanted about Steve Smith, which caused a negative reputation for the brand of Ashes. All stakeholders should work together to make these archrivalries controversy-free.
