Aakash Chopra seeks clarification after 'Mysterious' fourth stump makes an appearance

Cricket pundit Aakash Chopra has sought clarification from the authorities after the fourth stump had made a mysterious appearance on Day 3 of the third Test match between India and Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground. The fourth stump had been shown in the Hawk-Eye when Team India had taken the help of the Decision Review System (DRS) to get Steve Smith's LBW decision reviewed.

'The Mysterious fourth stump': Aakash Chopra

Taking to the micro-blogging site, the former Indian Test opener expected a clarification from the authorities who were responsible for the mysterious fourth stump making an appearance on replays.

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What did the fourth stump have to do with DRS?

The incident happened in the 12th over of Australia's second innings that was bowled by Ravichandran Ashwin and Steve Smith was on strike. It was the veteran off-spinner's second over of the innings and in one of those deliveries, the number three batsman was struck on the pads and there was a muted appeal for leg before as the ball was clearly moving towards the leg-side.

Nonetheless, the Tamil Nadu all-rounder was somehow convinced that he had got Steven Smith's number and urged the stand-in-captain Ajinkya Rahane to get it reviewed and he obliged. Replays showed that the ball was tossed up on leg stump and the New South Wales batsman, was beaten by the loop in his attempt to play a sweep shot. To the naked eye, it looked that the ball was completely going a long way down the leg side but the Hawk-Eye had something else to show.

Even though the Hawk-Eye took a long time to reach a conclusion, it made a mess of everything as the overlay of the stumps by Hawk-Eye did not line up with the actual stumps and the pitch-map showed the ball was hitting what was a virtual fourth-stump which was some distance away from the actual leg stump.

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