The incident happened just before lunch. Shardul Thakur, in the middle of an inspired spell, brought one back into Rassie van der Dussen.
The ball found the inside edge and Rishabh Pant completed an acrobatic catch diving forward.
van der Dussen ‘walked’ and the players trooped off for lunch.
Then, came the shocker. The replays from the front and straight angle showed Pant taking the ball off the grass.
Everyone in the press box and the former cricketers this correspondent spoke to were convinced it was a bump-ball catch.
The next question was, would van der Dussen be ‘recalled’ to the crease since the next delivery had not been bowled, the next batsman had not come in, and the Indians too had departed to the pavilion with the dismissed batsman for lunch.
Apparently, the umpires and the third umpire had to come to an agreement about “conclusive” evidence about the legality of the catch before requesting the Indians to withdraw the appeal.
No conclusive evidence
It came to light that the umpires did not find that ‘conclusive’ evidence despite the replays indicating otherwise.
Everyone waited to see if van der Dussen would walk out with Temba Bavuma after lunch.
But it was new man Kyle Verreynne who came in with the South African vice-captain.
Images showed van der Dussen and the South Africans despondent in the pavilion as they followed the game.
The big question is - was technology put to its best use? If seeing is believing, it was a bump ball.
