Melbourne Controversy: Bangladesh Umpire Trolled For ‘Cheating’ After India Lose 4th Test To Australia

Mumbai: India collapsed in a heap to lose their last seven wickets for 34 runs in the final session of the fourth Test at Melbourne, handing Australia a 184-run victory and a 2-1 lead in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

India’s scorecard made for pathetic reading with eight batters falling for single-digit scores, including the ‘big two’ Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli yet again.

While some netizens targeted Rohit and Kohli for the abysmal surrender, many others found a villain in third umpire Sharfuddoula Shahid Saikat.

In a controversial and much-debated decision, Sharfuddoula ruled India’s top-scorer Yashasvi Jaiswal (84) out after the on-field umpire Joel Wilson had turned down an Australian appeal for a caught-behind down the legside.

With India battling to save the Test match and Jaiswal their main hope, the left-handed opener missed a pull off Pat Cummins and the ball sailed through to wicketkeeper Alex Carey. As the Australians opted for a DRS referral, the reviews showed the ball passing very close the face of the bat and Jaiswal’s glove, and a possible deviation.

However, the Snickometer didn’t show any spike as the ball passed the bat, but the third umpire overruled the on-field decision based on what he saw.

That infuriated experts like Sunil Gavaskar, who said on commentary, “If the evidence of the technology is not to be taken, why have it at all? That is something that would definitely be the query as far as the Indians are concerned.”

The incident kicked up a storm on social media, with some users taking their ire out on the Bangladeshi official with the hashtag #cheating.

“#CHEATING Third umpire belongs to bangladesh, he should be banned for life time. Sharfuddoula Saikat cheater is from kangladesh (sic),” one user wrote on X.

Another user commented: “This test match will be known for the biggest #cheating done by australian cheaters & of course the Umpire had the worst ever decision ever seen in a match. That was a clear NOT OUT.”

Here are some other reactions slamming the third umpire for not only Jaiswal but Akash Deep’s decision as well: