AUS vs ENG: Needs To Be Investigated - Ricky Ponting Fumes Over Ball Change Saga At The Oval

Former Australian skipper Ricky Ponting wasn’t impressed with the ball change during the last innings of the ongoing 5th game of the Ashes 2023 at The Oval. He lashed out at the umpires for making a blunder and said that the two balls weren’t even comparable.

A new drama unfolded during the first session of the Day 5 of the last game of the Ashes 2023. The picture of the ball, which the umpires changed circulated on the internet and it’s fair to say that the changed ball was nowhere close to the damaged ball that England was bowling.

After Ben Stokes complained about the ball, umpires during the fag end of Day 4 changed the ball and with just 11 deliveries possible due to the rain many didn’t get the idea of how the ball will be playing. But it shook the entire cricket fraternity in the morning session as there was a lot of movement and Australia lost three wickets as well.

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Many fans and pundits raised concerns over the condition of the ball and the latest to join the bandwagon was batting great Ricky Ponting. The former Australian skipper was fuming about the ball change and said that umpires threw back the old balls from the box before adding that he cannot fathom how two international umpires can get that so wrong. Speaking to Sky Sports, he explained:

“I spoke about it to Mark Taylor last night during the commentary. Last night there was only 11 balls that were bowled after the change of ball, so we never really got much of an idea of what it might or might not do but the biggest concern I have is just the big discrepancy in the condition of the ball that was chosen to replace. There’s no way in the world you can even look at those 2 balls there and saying anyway that they are comparable.

“At the end of the day if you are gonna change the ball you wanna make sure you get it right as close as you possibly can to the one you are changing from. There weren’t too many older conditions balls in the box but if you have a look at that there were some older ones that were picked up and umpires looked at them and threw them back and then I just cannot fathom how two international umpires can get that so wrong.”

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AUS vs ENG: It’s a huge blunder and as I said it needs to be investigated – Ricky Ponting On ball change

Ricky Ponting while calling it a blunder said that it’s a huge moment in the game and it needs a proper investigation. He explained:

“That is a huge moment in this game potentially a huge moment in the test match and something I think actually has to be investigated whether there was the right condition balls in the box or the umpires have just blazed a picked 1 out of that they told the ok to use.

“The conditions were perfect for bowling this morning but what I saw last night with the old ball would not have done anywhere near as much as what the new ball did this morning. Double the amount of movement this morning from yesterday afternoon same movement and swing, I think it’s a huge blunder and as I said it needs to be investigated.”

At lunch on Day 5, Australia were 238/3 and still are 146 runs away from the win. England on the other hand are 7 wickets away from levelling the series 2-2.

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