VIDEO | Umpire saves Sri Lankan innings after double checking Mitchell Santner’s wrongly-judged catch

Sri Lanka had a really torrid time with the bat at Sophia Gardens in Cardiff as New Zealand pacers swung the ball beautifully to ensure that the low-scoring encounters continue in this World Cup. Apart from Karunaratne, not a single batsmen showed any kind of application and that resulted in the wickets falling like a pack of cards. However, the biggest comedy was reserved for the very last over of the innings. 

On the first ball of the 30th over, Lockie Ferguson bowled a short ball to Karunaratne but the Sri Lankan skipper couldn’t quite time his pull as the ball was in the air for the maximum time. Santner was active near deep mid-wicket and dived forward to grab the catch in both hands. New Zealand players started celebrating the dismissal and were on their way to the pavilion but the umpire suddenly stopped them to check the catch.

As the field umpire referred it to the third umpire, with a soft signal of OUT, Kiwi cricketers were still confident that Karunaratne would be given out anyway. However, the third umpire, after checking it from few angels, found out that the ball had made contact with the ground and his fingers were not under the ball at the time of impact. 

That was enough for the third umpire to be convinced that it was a drop and he asked the Sri Lankans to continue their innings. However, that didn’t matter much in the end as Ferguson castled Lasith Malinga on the very next delivery to bring an end to the New Zealand innings.