Maxwell reckons third umpire pressed wrong button

Glenn Maxwell playing a shot during the second T20.

Pakistan wrapped their 10th T20 series with victory over Australia in the second of the three-match T20 series at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium late on Friday night but the contentious run-out of opener D'Arcy Short still rankled for the Australians.
Left-arm spinner Imad Wasim got a finger to captain Aaron Finch's shot on his follow through which hit the stumps. And although it seemed that Short had grounded his bat behind the line, the TV umpire Shozab Raza thought otherwise and ruled him out.
An animated Finch told the on-field umpires Asif Yaqoob and Ahsan Raza that Short's bat was on the ground but the decision stayed.
And Glenn Maxwell, who top scored with 52 in a losing cause, believed that it was the wrong decision but added that it didn't have anything to do with spoiling their run chase.
"Maybe the third umpire pressed the wrong button. We've all made mistakes," said Maxwell.
"I wouldn't have thought it unsettled us. I think we were able to quickly get back to what we needed to do out there in the middle. We certainly had a view as a team that we thought his bat was firmly grounded behind the line. The third umpire thought otherwise," he added.
Maxwell delved deeper into it by saying that the way Short was holding bat, it wouldn't have been up in the air. But he did add that there was no reason to dwell over it and they just needed to get on with the game.
"As we probably saw it in the change room, there wasn't really any doubt that he had his bat behind the line. If you even look at the way he is holding his bat, it is very hard to sort of hold it above the line. With the bat sort of sitting out of his glove, it was an interesting call but we have to deal with that and get on with the job at hand. It is not something that you can actually change while you are out there so there's no point dwelling over it as a batting team and you just have to go out there and make the runs," Maxwell elaborated.
Meanwhile, Pakistan captain Sarfraz Ahmed was amused by Finch's reaction and said that the bat was not grounded.
"I don't why there was so much of a reaction. Clearly it was out as the bat was not on the ground. I don't know why so much...it is not my domain, it is the umpire's domain," said Sarfraz.
james@khaleejtimes.com