Commentators back KL Rahul catch to dismiss Root

England v India: Specsavers 3rd Test - Day Two

Joe Root's visibly expressed disappointment with the decision of the three umpires' confluence on the second day of the third Test match at Nottingham has sparked controversy across both social media and the television broadcasting communities.

Englishmen Mark Butcher and Michael Vaughan have both gone on to state that there was nothing susceptible about the decision and the right call was made.

"Ball travels horizontally, not vertically towards an object that is curved, not flat. Therefore the ball can, and did in this case, bounce off the fingers into the palms. Out!" Butcher tweeted.

"A lot of controversy over the catch - I thought he was caught. I think it bounces off the finger," Vaughan remarked to the BBC.

Commentating for Sky Sports, former Sri Lankan wicket-keeper Kumar Sangakkara added: "It does look out, it looked as if the fingers were underneath the ball. You do need conclusive evidence to overturn any signal from the on-field umpires."

The second of the five stunning Hardik Pandya victims, the English captain stayed within the confinements of the line of a wide of the crease delivered ball, and as it straightened after pitching, all Root could do was fend at it as the outside edge carried to second slip where KL Rahul took a low catch.

On field umpires Chris Gaffaney and Marais Erasmus gave the soft signal as 'out', but both of them along with Root were not convinced and third umpire Aleem Dar was called into the fore to confirm the decision.

The replays showed that Rahul's fingers just might have been underneath the ball and this being the primary on-field verdict, Dar found no reason to overturn the decision and Root went off the field fuming in disbelief.

Root's wicket triggered one of the famous English collapses as the fortunes swung wildly in the favour of India giving them an unassailable lead of 148 runs in the first innings.

This was the third time in the last two years that England lost ten wickets in a single session, the previous instances being at Mirpur in 2016 and earlier this year in Auckland, when Trent Boult and Time Southee ran rampant against the fragile batting of the visitors.

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Edited by Amar Anand
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