India's review that should have seen the back of Matthew Wade was ruled out in confusing circumstances in the third Dettol T20I
'Null and void': Wade spared as India denied review
Matthew Wade was given a dramatic reprieve on Tuesday evening after Virat Kohli's attempted review was declared "null and void" by the television umpire, with officials deeming that India's captain had witnessed a replay off the venue's big screen.
Confusion reigned at the SCG on Tuesday evening during the third Dettol T20I when opener Matthew Wade, who had moved to 50 from 35 balls in the 11th over, was struck on the front pad by left-armer Thangarasu Natarajan and given not out.
Kohli, fielding at long on, was trying to communicate with bowler and wicketkeeper KL Rahul as to whether he should review the umpire's decision and, after a long deliberation, looked as though he decided against it.
Image Id: 9FA6033791E54136A88C68FC3809744B Image Caption: Wade would have been out had India's review not been overruled // Fox CricketBut when the skipper turned to walk back to his mark on the boundary, he saw a replay of the delivery on the big screen and called for a review.
Wade was preparing to take strike when Rahul informed him that a review had been called.
"They referred it off the big screen," Wade was heard protesting to the square-leg umpire on Fox Cricket's stump mic.
Midway through the review process, third umpire Paul Wilson cancelled the assessment, calling it "null and void" because the big screen had shown the replay.
"We can't go through this review anymore," said Wilson. "There are replays on the big screen.
"This is a null and void review."
By showing a replay, the integrity of the review is lost and it is believed there was no 15-second countdown clock shown on the big screen.
Had Kohli reviewed without seeing the replay Wade would have been out, with ball tracking technology confirming Natarajan's delivery pitched and struck the left-hander in line and would have go on to hit the stumps.
India retained their review, the match continued and three balls later Wade sent Shardul Thakur into the stands for the first six of the night.
Australia's vice-captain went on to score 80 off just 53 balls, a career-high international T20 score, to help set India 187 to win.
Kohli called for another review from the same position in the 17th over, this time just getting the call in with one second left on the clock.
Glenn Maxwell, who had earlier been caught off a no ball from leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal, was given not out for caught behind and Wilson confirmed the on-field call when no bat nor glove was found to come in contact with the ball.
Australia XI: Aaron Finch (c), Matthew Wade (wk), Steve Smith, Glenn Maxwell, Moises Henriques, D'Arcy Short, Daniel Sams, Sean Abbott, Andrew Tye, Mitch Swepson, Adam Zampa
India XI: Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul (wk), Virat Kohli (c), Shreyas Iyer, Sanju Samson, Hardik Pandya, Shardul Thakur, Washington Sundar, Deepak Chahar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Thangarasu Natarajan
Dettol T20 INTL Series v India 2020
Australia T20 squad: Aaron Finch (c), Sean Abbott, Alex Carey, Josh Hazlewood, Moises Henriques, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Glenn Maxwell, Daniel Sams, D'Arcy Short, Steven Smith, Marcus Stoinis, Mitchell Swepson, Andrew Tye, Matthew Wade, Adam Zampa
India T20I squad: Virat Kohli (c), Shikhar Dhawan, Mayank Agarwal, KL Rahul (wicketkeeper), Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Sanju Samson (wk), Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Navdeep Saini, Deepak Chahar, T Natarajan, Shardul Thakur
First T20: India won by 11 runs
Second T20: India won by six wickets with two balls to spare
Third T20: December 8, SCG, 7.10pm AEDT