Ashes 2017-18: 6 Controversies from the marquee series Down Under

#1 Mason Crane “no-ball” wicket of Usman Khawaja at Sydney

Whether Mason Crane had over-stepped or not remained debatable after he trapped Usman Khawaja lbw at Sydney

Like three of his current generation compatriots – Ben Stokes, Mark Wood and Tom Curran – debutant leg-spinner Mason Crane, brought in for the final Test at Sydney, got his maiden Test wicket off a no-ball! Usman Khawaja, after a dry series, was going great guns on 132 when Crane trapped him in front after the batsman offered no shot. Joe Root chose to review immediately, as Crane looked confident – and appealed even more confidently – but the umpire remained unmoved.

The front foot, the first thing to be checked on replay, was found to have landed just outside the line. It was a close call, but third umpire Sundaram Ravi ruled in favour of Khawaja, sparking an argument if the former was too stern on the bowler. When ball tracking was used to check if Khawaja would have been otherwise out, it was found that indeed the ball would have crashed into his off stump as he had put forward his pad with the bat hidden behind.