Harbhajan proven right after claiming Ponting was lucky to survive LBW call in 2003 World Cup final
Harbhajan Singh was proven right by YouTube video uploader Rob Moody after the Indian off-spinner claimed that Australian captain Ricky Pointing was given not out despite being plumb leg-before-wicket (LBW) to Dinesh Mongia in the 2003 World Cup final.
Ponting played one of the greatest ODI innings of all time on 23 March 2003 as he went to slam an unbeaten 140 in just 121 balls to lead the men from down under to their second consecutive World Cup triumph.
When the Tasmanian was on 46, he attempted to sweep part-time spinner Mongia but missed the line of the ball completely. The Indian players, particularly Mongia and wicket-keeper Rahul Dravid, went up in appeal but to no avail as umpire Steve Bucknor just shook his head in disapproval.
This incident was long forgotten before Harbhajan revisited it on Twitter today. ICC's official account on the social media website had tweeted about Ponting’s knock in the 2003 final as part of their countdown series for the 2015 World Cup.
Seven hours later, Harbhajan replied to ICC’s tweet stating that Ponting was lucky to survive a LBW call when his score was “40 odd”. The tweet was later deleted but read as follows:
But as we can see below, one little fact that Harbhajan seems to have gotten wrong there was the fact that it was Bucknor and not the late David Shepherd who made the error. Bucknor has a long history with the Indian cricket team, with the Indian team almost quitting a tour to Australia in January 2008 after some erratic umpiring from the West Indian.
Harbhajan’s cry didn’t fall on deaf ears as Moody, who is well known for uploading vintage cricket videos on YouTube, immediately posted the video.
The cricketer known as ‘Bhajji’ later thanked Moody for uploading the image.