Watch: Worst review ever? Bangladesh take DRS for LBW against Taylor even as ball hits bat, commentators in splits
Bangladesh burnt a referral in what would go down as one of the most bizarre DRS reviews of all time.
Bangladesh burnt a referral in what would go down as one of the most bizarre DRS reviews of all time. On Day 4 of the first Test between New Zealand and Bangladesh, the visitors strangely opted for DRS even as the ball clearly hit the bat of Ross Taylor. Taylor was batting on 15 with New Zealand's score reading 90/2 when he played out a yorker from Taskin Ahmed. But surprisingly, Bangladesh felt there was a lot more to it and ended up taking a review.
The first stage of the DRS is the no-ball, followed by the ultra-edge and then ball-tracking if need be. The review was turned down in the second stage itself when the replay clearly showed the ball hitting the bat much to the amusement of the commentators, who could not control their laughter watching Bangladesh’s decision-making.
“This could be the worst review in the history of cricket,” a Twitter user posted with a video of the incident.
After Bangladesh took a first innings lead of 220 against New Zealand, getting bowled out for 458, they had New Zealand in trouble as the Kiwis ended the penultimate day of the Test match. New Zealand went into stumps at 147/5 with a lead of 17 runs. But with only five wickets left, Bangladesh may sense a chance here.
Ebadot Hossain was the wrecker-in-chief with four of the five New Zealand wickets to fall. He dismissed Will Young for 69, Devon Conway for 13, and nipped out Henry Nicholls and Tom Blundell for ducks, picking up the two wickets off three balls. The other wicket to fall was that of captain Tom Latham, who was cleaned up by Ahmed.
This isn't the first time that Bangladesh have opted for a strange review. In a Test match against India in 2016, they had wasted a DRS with a similar appeal against captain Virat Kohli. Kohli had harmlessly defended a ball off Taijul Islam but the Bangladesh unit went up in an appeal unanimously taking the commentators by surprise. Mushfiqur Rahim had signalled for the review but the whole thing turned out to be a farce in the end as the ball was clearly seen hitting the middle of Kohli’ bat just below the sticker.