Umpire’s call on catch that wasn’t perplexes Proteas

“We were convinced it was out,” Anrich Nortje said bluntly. 

He was referring to the catch that wasn’t — at least in the eyes of television official Richard Kettleborough.

The English umpire viewed several angles of the “catch” taken by Simon Harmer at slip that would have led to Marnus Labuschagne’s dismissal for 70.

“Got the ball on the floor there,” Kettleborough commented to his two on-field colleagues, Paul Reiffel, who’d give a “soft signal” of out, and Chris Gaffney. 

“All of us thought it was out. Simon was convinced it went straight in,” Nortje said.

“When you look at it front on — or the [other] angles — to us it looks like fingers were underneath it. Unfortunately we didn’t get that one. ”

Nortje produced another gallant effort, taking both Australian wickets to fall on a rain-curtailed first day at the Sydney Cricket Ground, with the home team finishing on 147/2.

Only 47 overs were bowled with bad light and rain interrupting and ultimately halting play in the afternoon. 

The incident occurred shortly before a two-and-half-hour delay when Marco Jansen found the outside edge of Labuschagne’s bat, with Harmer seemingly taking the catch before it touched the turf. 

“You have to try and focus again. It can quickly get out of hand if you feel you’ve been hard done by," Nortje said.

"The main thing is to try to focus, I told Marco that as well, just to focus on what you were doing , put even more effort in the basics and try to get through that phase.”

“It can feel like you should have got the wicket and now maybe one or two balls go to the boundary and you lose the momentum. I thought he bowled really well at that stage. As a fielding unit you want to feed off that energy.”

Nortje dismissed David Warner in the first session, allowing the Proteas to take control after Pat Cummins chose to baton winning the toss.

Labuschagne, who was dismissed in a 20-minute session after that lengthy delay for 79, and Usman Khawaja shared a partnership of 135 runs for the second wicket. 

Khawaja finished on 54 not out, with play called off the final time the moment Labuschagne was dismissed by a peach from Nortje that straightened off the surface and bounced just enough to find the edge.

“I wasn’t trying to be fancy, just to keep it simple and try to hit the wicket as hard as I could, try to get something out of it. It wasn’t a big set-up, it was more about trying to be consistent in that area and luckily we got some nip and bounce there.”

That unfussy approach has worked wonders for Nortje, who bowled a great spell at Warner in the Melbourne Test last week, regularly registering speeds around the 150km/h mark.

With Lungi Ngidi dropped in Sydney because of the drier surface which both sides believe will assist spin later in the match, Nortje was given the new ball. 

“It’s something I’ve been working really hard on. I was happy to get it today, I’ve been wanting that. Sometimes you come on first change and some of the shine, the ball is a little softer, the guys are in. It was nice today to be able to bowl first innings with the new ball.”