The Indian team completed a brilliant win in the fifth and final T20I against Australia, which was played in Bengaluru on Sunday, and pocketed the series 4-1. It was a good result and gave some cheer to Team India fans who were disappointed after the World Cup final loss.
India was asked to bat first Australia captain Matthew Wade who had won the toss. Shreyas Iyer top-scored with 53, while Akshar Patel made 31 runs as India posted 160/8 in 20 overs.
India managed to defend the total thanks to Mukesh Kumar, who finished with 3/32, and Arshdeep Singh (2/40), who successfully defended 10 off the last over. India won the match by 6 runs and won the series 4-1.
However, a remark from former Australia cricketer Matthew Hayden during commentary caused a bit of uproar. Hayden was on commentary when the square-leg umpire did not signal wide when Arshdeep's bouncer was clearly above Matthew Wade's head and later when the umpire accidentally got hit courtesy of a Nathan Ellis strike.
The first ball of the last over by Arshdeep was a bouncer which went over Matthew Wade’s head and despite pleas from the batter, the leg-umpire didn’t give it a wide ball, leading to Wade showing his frustration.
That's when Hayden said, "You can see why he is upset, that's definitely a wide. Way over his head. It has to be about his position as well. He was standing up on that ball and it was still over his head."
Then with 8 needed off the last 2 balls, Nathan Ellis hit a delivery straight down the ground. But Arshdeep Singh managed to get a hand to the ball and deflected it on the body of the umpire, who was taking evasive action to save himself. The ball hit the umpire flush on his body and Ellis gestured at missing out on a possible boundary.
Seeing the events transpire, Hayden simply went, "The umpire has done his job for the second time this over. Have a look at this. This time, it's the one in front, not on the square. They are tag-teaming here."
Hayden's comments, one feels, were unnecessary. For starters, the fielder at long-on was much straighter, so even if the umpire had managed to jump out of the way, it would have been a single at best.
A reasonable area of dispute could be the first ball - the wide - but even that would have only made a one-run difference, not enough for Australia to win.
