With the India-South Africa Tests heading for an exciting culmination, the series arguably saw its biggest controversy on Day 3 of the third Test at Cape Town. With the Proteas chasing a target of 211, it appeared Ravichandran Ashwin had produced the big wicket of Dean Elgar for India by trapping him in front of the stumps.
However, Elgar’s decision to review the decision turned out to be a masterstroke as the ball-tracking technology showed that the ball was going over the stumps. However, India were not impressed by the decision and made their anger evident on the stump-mic.
Skipper Virat Kohli was heard saying, “Focus on your team as well when they shine the ball eh, not just the opposition. Trying to catch people all the time.” Vice-captain KL Rahul said, “Whole country playing against XI guys,” while Ashwin said, “You should find better ways to win Supersport.”
With reactions to the incident flowing from around the world, South African pacer Lungi Ngidi has also reacted to the call saying India’s outburst showed their frustration and that they were feeling the pressure.
Speaking in the post-match press conference, he said, “Reactions like that show a bit of frustration. And sometimes teams capitalise on that. You never really want to show too much emotion, but I guess we could see clearly right there that emotions were high.”
“That probably tells us that maybe they are feeling a little bit of pressure. That was a good partnership for us as well. So they really wanted to break that partnership.
“Those feelings ended up showing there. But at the end of the day, I think everyone reacts differently to certain situations and probably what we saw there, probably how those guys were feeling at the time.” Ngidi added.
