Australia v Pakistan Second Test Report Card, Day Four

Featuring spike consistency and doing things yourself

Spike Consistency
Grade: C+

Australia looked to extend their lead past 300 on the fourth day of the Test. Their chances of doing so were undermined, however, when Cummins was given out caught behind.

He sent the decision upstairs and much like in the Test between the Australia and India women last week, the Australian captain was found to have a small spike in the edge detection a frame after the ball passed the bat.

As we all recall, such a spike was deemed previously to be not an edge, thereby failing to save Alyssa Healy from an LBW.

It made logical sense then for the same kind of spike here to be deemed an edge, thereby failing to save Pat Cummins from the caught behind decision.

Consistency is all fans ask for. And that’s what we got - Australian captains are consistently deemed to be out. Good umpiring.

Fox Cricket tried to clarify matters by unleashing fancy new AI technology that augmented the footage, adding new frames through the wizardry of machine learning. They were, however, at great pains to tell us that the third umpire did not use the AI footage in making the decision.

Probably a good thing, since, if you looked closely, you could see that Cummins was holding the bat with a suddenly six-fingered hand. 

Also, there was an inexplicable giraffe at third slip.

BAD AI IMAGE OF: The umpire about to warn the giraffe for walking on the pitch