Former Pakistani spinner Saeed Ajmal has once again bemoaned that Sachin Tendulkar was out LBW and that the officials did some tweaking with the DRS to give relief to the legendary batter during the 2011 World Cup semi-final at Mohali against India.
India was batting first and though Sachin was not at his fluent best, he was managing to hang on and in the 11th over, Ajmal got him to hit across the line and the ball hit him in front of the stumps.
Umpire Ian Gould gave Tendulkar out and the batter opted for DRS review. the replays showed the ball pitched in line but missed the leg stump. There was quite a furor in Pakistan over the decision and Ajmal, the bowler, spoke strongly against the decision following the end of the match as well.
Well, Ajmal has continued to speak about the same for 12 years now and this time, he has made a controversial claim saying that officials removed two frames from the DRS replays to show that the ball was missing the stumps.
“We played in the 2011 World Cup, you must remember the incident with Sachin Tendulkar. The LBW decision was overturned. The controversy about it is still going on. It was out. Both, the umpire and I knew it was out. They had cut two frames to make it look like the ball missed the stumps. Otherwise, it would've hit the stumps in the middle,” Ajmal said on the Nadir Ali Podcast.
Tendulkar ended up making 85 runs as India posted 260/9 in 50 overs. Pakistan, in reply, managed 231 runs with all five of the Indian bowlers taking two wickets each.
(Hindustan Times inputs)