SA vs BAN: Was Bangladesh Robbed Off 4 Runs After Overturned LBW Appeal on Mahmudullah?

It was so close yet so far for Bangladesh, who fell just short of their target, as they fell to South Africa in a 4-run loss against them in the T20 World Cup on Monday.

But, a huge point of contention that has come up has been that of Bangladesh not being awarded 4 runs off an overturned LBW call on Mahmudullah late in the game, as eventually the side lost by the same margin of runs.

After a disastrous start from Bangladesh who stood at 50/4 by the halfway mark, the onus fell on batters Towhid Hridoy and veteran Mahmudullah to help steer them clear of danger.

The duo withstood the fiery attack from the Proteas, as they slowly yet steadily chipped away at the total, bringing the game down to its last three overs where Bangladesh needed 20 runs off 18 balls.

But, it was in the 17th over, when chaos broke loose.

Ottneil Baartman came in for the third over of his spell and with a menacing delivery working its way into the body of Mahmudullah and clipping his leg, the Proteas appealed for an LBW, which was given by the umpire himself too initially.

The call prompted the veteran batter to go up for a review, upon which it was clearly seen that the ball was missing the leg-stump by a fair margin.

His wicket was saved, but at the same time, the umpire’s wrong call had also inadvertently saved four runs for South Africa as well.

Whilst Baartman and the Proteas appealed for the LBW, the ball has slowly trickled its way down fine-leg to the boundary, meaning that four leg-byes were to be awarded to Bangladesh for the same.

But, that was not the case, as the recent rules state that the ball’s deemed dead soon after the umpire’s verdict of out, and therefore, the four runs shall not be awarded despite the wrong call.

What do the rules say about the same? Well, unfortunately for Bangladesh, nothing in their favour.

Law 23.1(a)(iii)) of the ICC’s Rules of Cricket states that: “If following a review request, an original decision of ‘Out’ is changed to ‘Not Out’, then the ball is still deemed to have become dead when the original decision was made.”

Hence, this means the fault for the runs not being awarded is on no-one else, but an unfortunate twist of fate which led to the umpire making the wrong call on the LBW.

This would go on to act as salt into the wounds of the countless Bangladesh fans, whose misery (and Mahmudullah’s) would only reach a fever high in the very last over of the match.

With Bangladesh needing 7 runs off 4 balls and Mahmudullah on strike, the veteran skied one high straight down the ground off a full-toss from Keshav Maharaj which fell merely a meter short from the boundary as South African skipper Aiden Markram plucked it out of the air to dismiss the batter and their hopes of winning altogether.

South Africa’s defence of 113 runs has now gone down in history as the lowest total ever to be defended in T20 World Cup history, as the Proteas also claimed their third straight win of their campaign so far to remain undefeated.

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