Cameron Green‘s catch of Shubman Gill in India’s second innings in the WTC Final 2023 has become a topic of heated debate and the debate continues to rage on with fans and experts giving their opinion.
With India going after an improbable target of 444 runs to win the Ultimate Test, at the stroke of Tea on Day 4, Shubman Gill edged pacer Scott Boland in slips. Cameron Green, standing at gully, leapt down from gully with his left-hand scooping up the ball. In his movements of taking the catch, Green’s hand brushed the grass and he was on the ground.
There are two talking points in this debate: whether the ball touched the grass through Green’s fingers, and whether he was in “complete control” of the ball and the catch.
After much deliberations, watching of the replays from different angles, the third umpire sided with Green and gave Shubman Gill OUT, however many Indian fans thought that the batsman should have been given the benefit of the doubt and Shubman Gill should have been given not out.
The laws of cricket book are being opened up again and again and everyone is trying to interpret the laws in their own way, for, even the laws are not clear about how a fielder is in “complete control” of the catch and himself. That is a big contention, and whether the fielder is in “control” is subjective, left to the third umpire.
Was Shubman Gill correctly given out?
Renowned expert Joy Bhattacharjya, who is much revered by fans, for his knowledge of players and the game, has come up with a couple of tweets, explaining the laws regarding a catch dismissal, and why Shubman Gill was correctly given out by the third umpire Richard Kettleborough.
Ahead of Day 5, Sunday, Joy Bhattacharjya tweeted, “Went through the ICC rules this morning & I got it wrong and the third umpire got it right on the Gill dismissal.
According to Rule 33.3 33.3 Making a catch- “The act of making a catch shall start from the time when the ball first comes into contact with a fielder’s person & shall end when a fielder obtains complete control over both the ball and his/her own movement.”
He added: “The question therefore is not whether the ball touched the ground after he took the catch, but whether he was in control of the ball before it touched the ground. Clearly he was!”
