New Zealand Cricket's Sheldon Eden-Whaitiri reacts to Daryl Mitchell LBW controversy against India
What's the story?
New Zealand cricket have acknowledged and reacted to third umpire Shaun Haig's incorrect decision to deem Daryl Mitchell as out LBW in the second T20I between India and the Blackcaps at Eden Park. New Zealand Cricket's match officials manager Sheldon Eden-Whaitiri affirmed that the decision was completely incorrect.
In case you didn't know...
In the sixth over of the New Zealand innings against India during the second of the three T20Is, Mitchell was given out LBW by the on-field umpire off Krunal Pandya's bowling. As envisioned by almost every viewer, the batter, upon discussion with Kane Williamson, decided to go upstairs to the third umpire.
Much to everyone's shock, Shaun Haig asked the on-field umpire to stay with his decision, despite having witnessed a huge edge in the hotspot.
The heart of the matter
As a result of the contentious decision, Mitchell was forced to walk back to the pavilion for just the solitary run. Eventually, the New Zealand innings took a couple of blows and finished on 158/8 - a target that was easily chased down by Rohit Sharma and Co.
However, the Kiwis won the series 2-1, winning the final T20I by just four runs.
While speaking on Radio Sport on 12 February, Sheldon Eden-Whaitiri remarked:
"On reflection, on review, we've deemed he made an error there. There was a hotspot, he should have gone with that, but he's the first to put his hand up post the event and say he got (the decision), he made an error, he got that one wrong, he made a mistake."
Spinner Ish Sodhi too had earlier expressed his views on the incident, mentioning that he had never seen such a thing in cricket before.
"Shocking. We didn't really understand what was going on. Most people saw that there was a hotspot on his bat. We're pretty gutted about it. Gutted because it was just his second game, coming out and having something like that. I have never seen anything like that in international cricket before," he said.
What's next?
New Zealand begin the series against Bangladesh on 13 February for three ODIs and as many Test matches.