Shan Masood ‘baffled’ by Hawkeye trajectory following lbw dismissal

Pakistan captain Shan Masood believes a ball-tracking failure was at fault for his being given out lbw on the fourth and final day of the Cape Town Test match against South Africa. Masood, who scored 145 in Pakistan’s second innings, was ruled not-out by umpire Nitin Menon off the left-arm quick Kwena Maphaka‘s bowling, and had the decision overturned on review when Hawkeye deemed the ball to be hitting off stump.

Masood felt the pictures Hawkeye threw up did not align with the reality of what had happened off that delivery. “It’s simple,” Masood said after the end of the game. “It was an outswinger. If you see the ball that I was beaten by, it jagged away a long way. I was beaten on the outside edge, and it was shown as an inswinger. I was baffled by that to be very honest.”

Masood, who had batted more or less chancelessly for over six hours over two days for his innings, had looked largely untroubled on the fourth morning until that delivery. Maphaka, bowling from left-arm over to the left-handed Masood, landed it on a length and got the ball to keep a touch low while straightening past the outside edge as Masood attempted to defend it, squaring him up and striking him on the back pad.

Upon review, Hawkeye deemed the ball to have struck Masood in line with off stump, and did not show any significant deviation away from the stumps that would have saved him. “With the naked eye, you could see it felt like it was outside the line as well. I just felt it was a different picture. I didn’t get hit where Hawkeye was showing it to be hit. I was hit more on the outside of the leg than the inside; it shows it on the inside. That’s not an inswinger. I was beaten by an outswinger and that’s what the umpire thought as well, and that’s all I can say to that.”

Masood made no attempt to conceal his displeasure when the pictures went up on screen. He stood rooted to the spot for an extended period, gesticulating in disagreement. When he did turn around to trudge off, he still wore an expression of anger and frustration. As he walked up to the pavilion, he once again gestured in an outward arc with his hands to mimic the movement of the ball.

“It’s up to the administrators to see if that’s a fair decision or not, but I certainly felt that technology didn’t show the trajectory of how that ball was,” Masood said.

Pakistan had ended on the right side of an lbw decision before lunch, also off the bowling of Maphaka. Saud Shakeel was rapped on the pad as the ball angled towards leg stump, and on that occasion, too, Menon had ruled it to be not out. South Africa did not review, with Hawkeye indicating it would have gone on to hit leg stump.