A major umpiring blunder in the Big Bash League could have cost the Melbourne Stars a chance to climb back into the top five on Tuesday afternoon in their clash against the Perth Scorchers.
With a returning Glenn Maxwell and Marcus Stoinis back to bolster a fatigued outfit who are being forced to make up games after having postponements thanks to the coronavirus smashing their squad, it was supposed to be the Stars' game to win.
While they were comprehensively outplayed in the end by Perth, it was an incident during the Scorchers' innings which has left the Stars seething.
After the mid-innings time out, and with the Stars already on 1 for 79, Laurie Evans wrongly took strike.
Sitting on 28 at the time, he had taken two off the final ball of the tenth over, which was bowled by Adam Zampa, only to then take strike again for the next over, which was delivered by Pakistani quick Haris Rauf.
Adding insult to injury for the Stars, Evans then took 17 runs off the five balls he faced in the over, with the Scorchers able to add 36 runs from their two-over power surge.
The umpiring team, comprising Phillip Gillespie and Simon Lightbody on field, as well as Donovan Koch in the third umpires box, seemingly failed to pick up on the fact the wrong batsman had taken strike.
The Stars reportedly inquired about the situation during the innings break, but were told nothing could be done about it.
*GMHBA Stadium
Stars inquired at innings break only to be told there was nothing umpires could do about it @7Cricket
— Andrew McCormack (@_AMcCormack7) January 11, 2022
The Scorchers would go on to make 3 for 196 from their 20 overs, with Evans ending up on 69 off just 46 balls before finally being dismissed by Rauf.
Ashton Turner was the other key man with the bat, whacking 47 off 26 balls.
In response, the Melbourne Stars, who are currently at the wrong end of the table, were unable to get close to the Scorchers, falling well short as Matthew Kelly took 4 for 25 in a leading performance for Perth.
