Umpires admit catch error

As Travis Head trudged off the Adelaide Oval last night the stadium's screens showed replays of his dismissal: a clear edge off the bat even more clearly bouncing short of Melbourne Stars wicketkeeper Peter Handscomb, who appealed for the catch.

The Adelaide Strikers had slumped to 4-64 in the tenth over and looked in serious strife in their KFC Big Bash League opening match. As the boos rang out around the stadium from the 27,611 partisan supporters, umpires Gerard Abood and Mike Graham-Smith stood together and shared a sinking feeling. 

"It goes without saying we don't like getting things wrong, we like to get them right and that's what we strive for," Abood told cricket.com.au after the match.

"It's not the best feeling in the world when you realise you've got one wrong. We'll go through our processes and try to figure out how we got it wrong and why we got it wrong.

"It's hard not to hear all the boos when they nearly lift the roof off, but that's all part and parcel of it, we're paid to do that, that's our job."

Having checked with each other, both on-field umpires were confident the edge had carried to Handscomb and he had completed a clean catch. 

The 24-year-old Stars gloveman appealed and bowler John Hastings steamed off to celebrate, only turning to appeal when realising there was some hesitation. 

"They didn't really appeal, they just went in to celebrate with each other," Damien Fleming said on Network Ten's commentary.

Quick Single: Strikers sparkle, Stars fade

"I was watching the monitor and it felt like it had bounced," Australian wicketkeeping legend Adam Gilchrist added.

With the on-field umpires in agreement, Head was given his marching orders and the third umpire, who would have seen the ball hit the turf before reaching Handscomb's gloves, was not called upon.

"I heard the nick on it, I sort of thought it carried, I asked Mike and Mike thought it carried so we gave it out," said Abood, who was the standing umpire for the decision.

"As it turns out it appears that it has bounced.

"If we had an inkling that it had bounced we would have referred it upstairs."

In agreement that Handscomb had taken a clean catch on the field, the umpires thought it a routine dismissal until the boos began ringing out. 

As the match played out, Head’s dismissal did not provide any advantage to the Stars. In fact, next man in Alex Ross proceeded to belt 65 from 31 balls in a 115-run fifth-wicket stand with Brad Hodge, who finished unbeaten on 56 from 41 balls.

Their turnaround helped the Strikers secure a 19-run win. 

The umpires will now go through a rigorous review process of their performance – standard procedure for all CA matches, but with extra attention sure to be placed on how Handscomb's claimed catch was allowed to stand.

"It's easy to be Monday's expert on it. We didn't think at the time there was an issue with it so we didn't refer it up," said Abood.

Graham-Smith added: "It will certainly be part of our review when we go and have a look at the decision and work through the process. 

"And whether we followed them correctly or not that's something for us to have a look at later on."