Masood felt that the images Hawkeye threw up did not align with the reality of what had happened in that birth. “It’s simple,” Masood said after the end of the match. “He was an outswinger. If you look at the ball he hit me, it swerved a lot. I got hit on the outside edge and he showed up as an inswinger. That baffled me to be very honest.”
Masood, who had batted more or less hopelessly for more than six hours over two days in his innings, seemed untroubled on the fourth morning until that delivery. Maphaka, bowling from the left arm towards the left-handed Masood, landed on a length and got the ball to keep a low touch as it straightened beyond the outside edge as Masood attempted to defend it, square it and hit it on the back pad.
Upon review, Hawkeye deemed that the ball had hit Masood in line with the stump and did not show any significant deviation from the stumps that would have saved him. “At first glance, you could see that it felt like I was out of line as well. I just felt like it was a different picture. I didn’t get hit where Hawkeye was showing I got hit. I got hit more on the outside of the leg than on the outside of the leg. inside; it shows on the inside. That’s not an inside swinger. I was hit by an outswinger and that’s what the referee thought too, and that’s all I can say about it.”
Masood made no attempt to hide his disgust when the images appeared on the screen. He remained rooted to the spot for a long period, gesticulating in disagreement. When he turned to walk away, he still had an expression of anger and frustration. As he walked towards the pavilion, he once again gestured with his hands in an outward arc to imitate the movement of the ball.
“It’s up to the administrators to see if it’s a fair decision or not, but I certainly felt like the technology didn’t show the trajectory of that ball,” Masood said.
Pakistan had finished on the right side of an lbw decision before lunch, also off Maphaka’s bowling. Saud Shakeel was hit on the pad as the ball was heading towards leg stump, and on that occasion too, Menon had ruled him out. South Africa did not review, and Hawkeye indicated that he had hit his leg stump.
