On This Day in 2008: Australia and India have always been poised a neck-to-neck battle in matches played across all three forms of this gentlemen’s game. Their on-field rivalry has also been heated up with many verbal spats and heated exchanges. On This Day in 2008, a red ball match between these two nations is still being remembered for all the wrong reasons.
On This Day 2008: Many Poor Umpiring Decisions Did Not Allow India To Win Their Maiden Series Down Under –
India won its first series in Australia during the 2019 red ball series under Virat Kohli’s leadership. But when we look back at the earlier series played by India in Australia, the Men in Blue could have won the Test series Down Under much earlier.
India did well on their 2008 tour to the Aussie Nation. They lost at Melbourne Cricket Ground by 337 runs. But they did well to make a comeback in the series at SCG. However poor umpiring didn’t allow India to win that match and the team which was led by Anil Kumble lost the encounter by 122 runs.
Steve Bucknor and Mark Benson were the on-field umpires during the second red ball match of that Test series. After the hosts, Australia batted first, they posted a formidable score of 463 runs in their 1st innings. They reached this total mainly because of Andrew Symonds, who got a reprieve not once. But twice in the same innings.
When Symonds was batting on 30 runs off Ishant Sharma’s bowling, Andrew nicked the ball and Dhoni caught it cleanly behind the stumps. But the umpires favoured the batter and didn’t give him out. Symonds also didn’t walk away because he nicked the ball.
The other instance also involved MS Dhoni. Mahi stumped Symonds off Anil Kumble’s bowling. But Steve Bucknor didn’t feel the necessity to call the third umpire and when the replays were shown, it was clearly seen that Symonds’s leg was in the air. But Andrew survived another chance and went on to score an unbeaten 162 runs, which turned into a match-winning knock.
The other instance involved was the dismissal of Michael Clarke. This Aussie batter was unmoved even after he edged the ball and Rahul Dravid caught him in the second slip. Later, India’s former skipper Sourav Ganguly was given out on the basis of Clarke’s verdict, who refused to walk away even when he edged the ball as a batsman.
Then the BCCI officially lodged a complaint against Steve Bucknor and Mark Benson and they had these two umpires removed from the third red ball match which was played at Western Australian Cricket Association Ground in Perth. India won that match by 72 runs due to a comprehensive and all-round performance in that Test match.
However, due to the horrible umpiring decisions, India lost the red ball match at the Sydney Cricket Ground. If those wrong decisions had not been there then, the Men in Blue could have won the Test series in 2008 itself because India won at Perth and the last match at Adelaide was drawn. Instead of Kohli, Kumble would have been India’s captain to win a first-ever red ball series Down Under.
The Monkey Gate Saga Also Happened On This Day In 2008 At SCG –
Another controversy which shocked the cricketing world is the heated arguments between an Indian player and the Aussie player. Andrew Symonds and Harbhajan Singh were involved in a spat which turned into an ugly one. Symonds said that Bhajjii made a racial abuse by calling him a monkey.
The match referee, Mike Procter heard the live match recording and imposed a three-match ban on India’s off-spin bowler. This Indian camp didn’t agree to this verdict and threatened the Australian cricket board to boycott the remaining tour. After the BCCI appealed, Bhajji’s three-match ban was removed. But still, he was fined 50 percent of his match fees.
Also Read – 4 Batsmen From India With Fastest Half Centuries In Tests.
