Moeen Ali no-ball: Umpire Paul Wilson became the latest victim of an umpiring howler during England vs Sri Lanka match.
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If the 2019 edition of the ODI Cricket World Cup will be remembered for something, it’s for comical umpiring decisions. And we had another piece of quizzical decision making by the umpires when England and Sri Lanka met in Headingley on Friday for their clash in the expansive tournament.
The incident surfaced during the 21st over when all-rounder Moeen Ali walked into bowl to Angelo Mathews. The Sri Lankan batsman pulled out of his stride after spotting an infringement near the stands right in his line of view just as Moeen was about to send the delivery down. Accorded little time to pull out of his run up, the spinner ending by delivering the ball which ended up crashing into Mathews wickets subsequently.
While we’ve seen such indents often in cricket, the surprising piece of development from this was umpire Paul Wilson signalling it as a no ball. He deemed Moeen to have deliberately not stopped in his tracks, switching from type where such deliveries are usually signaled as a dead ball.
The bit of umpiring saw England concede not only an extra run but also give away a free hit, once again shedding light on the diabolic umpiring standards we’ve seen at the quadrennial event. It left viewers perturbed with many questioning as to why Wilson had not decided to signal it as a dead ball as is the usual rule of the land.
Moeen Ali no-ball:
How the match shaped up
Meanwhile, Mathews carried on from there to finally put on a worthwhile innings for his side with his top score of 85 taking Sri Lanka to a decent 232-9 on a fresh Headingly surface which played into the hands of the bowlers. It was a knock which turned out to be the difference in the end as Sri Lanka pulled of one of the biggest upset of the tournament as they went onto defeat the hosts by 20 runs.
For England meanwhile, their predicament while chasing continued on its merry way. The side have now lost to both Bangladesh and Sri Lanka when asked to come in and field first, clearly exposing the flaws in the home side’s approach when set a target. Their status as favourites for the trophy have been seriously dwindled after the defeat with the side needing to parry away either one of India, Australia or New Zealand in their final three matches.
