Former Pakistan cricketers Inzamam-ul-Haq and Saleem Malik have alleged that India tampered with the ball during their big win over Australia at the Super 8 stage of the T20 World Cup 2024.
Team India have since then topped their Super 8 group and qualified for the semifinals, where they will play England in the knockout match at Guyana. On the other hand, the Australian team eliminated after losing their matches to both India and Afghanistan.
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Pakistan had earlier suffered an early exit in the first round of the tournament, following their losses against co-hosts USA and India. Ever since then, the Pakistan media has seen round-the-clock coverage filled with rants, controversial opinions and baseless allegations against players, both from their own team and the other countries as well.
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Why did Inzamam-ul-Haq accuse India of ball-tampering against Australia during T20 World Cup?
Former Pakistan cricketer Inzamam-ul-Haq was speaking on a Pakistan news channel, 24 News HD, where he was joined by another one of his former teammates, Saleem Malik, where they discussed about the India-Australia match and accused the Men in Blue of cheating to victory.
Team India had set Australia a target of 206 runs to chase, after a brilliant show of batting prowess by their captain Rohit Sharma, who scored 92 runs off 41 balls.
Inzamam was talking about Indian left-arm pace bowler, Arshdeep Singh, saying that it was impossible to achieve reverse swing in the 15th over and with a new ball. In the modern era, each team gets a new ball at the start of their bowling inning.
He said that for India to get reverse swing in such conditions, it was only possible if they had tampered with the ball, adding that the umpires should have taken note of it.
"When Arshdeep Singh was bowling the 15th over, there was reverse swing. I am wondering if it is too early to get that with a new ball, and by the time it was 12-13th over, it became suitable for reversing. Umpires should have paid attention," the former Pakistan batter said.
His co-panelist, Saleem Malik chipped in saying that umpires tend to favour some teams including India.
"I always say that umpires keep a blind eye for some teams and one of them is India. I remember when we did a tour of Zimbabwe, Wasim Akram was bowling and showed us that one side had become rough. When we told the umpire, they gave us a fine us instead."
Inzamam insisted that reverse swing could only be achieved in the 15th over because India had tampered with the ball, saying umpires would have punished the team, if the bowlers were from Pakistan.
"If it was Pakistan bowlers instead of India, we would have surely got fined. I know how reverse swing works very well, so if Arshdeep can reverse swing a ball in the 15th over, then I think serious tampering has been done on the ball," Inzamam said
Saleem and Inzamam recalled that they were watching some of the Indian fielders, who were acting weird during the match. They described how certain players like Jasprit Bumrah are exceptions due to the unique angles they can achieve with their actions.
He said that for the other bowlers to achieve such swing, it was only possible if the ball was roughened up really well on one side. However, he concluded by saying that the ball might have roughened because the pitch was hard as well, adding that an investigation should be done on Team India.
"The action of a bowler like Jasprit Bumrah is such that the angle helps the ball to swing in a certain way but for most bowlers, with their action and speed, if it reverse swings, the ball needs to have been tampered really well. It might also have been that the ball got rough because the wicket was hard, which we should have a look at some time," Inzamam concluded, without providing any concrete evidence behind the allegations.
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