Watch: Steve Smith Can’t Believe As Third Umpire Rules Out Catch During 3rd Australia vs South Africa Test

Steve Smith had taken the catch at second slip which eventually got ruled out by third umpire.© Twitter

Steve Smith took a superb catch in the ongoing third Test between Australia and South Africa in Sydney but his effort went in vain after the third umpire ruled out the catch. Josh Hazlewood bowled a good length ball outside the off stump to South Africa skipper Dean Elgar. The batter poked the ball and got an outside edge on it. What followed was a stunning catch from Steve Smith at second slip. While the ground umpires were convinced with Smith’s catch, they sent the decision upstairs for a final check.

It was a tight decision but given that the soft signal from umpire Chris Gaffaney was out, the final decision was expceted to go in favour of Australia as the third umpire needed conclusive evidence to overturn the decision of the ground umpire. But to everyone’s surprise, the third umpire ruled it in favour of the batter as he felt that the ball touched the surface before Smith took the catch.

The former Australia skipper couldn’t believe when the big screen in stadium showed ‘not out’.

Watch it here:

Not out!

The third umpire decided this effort from Steve Smith touched the ground and Dean Elgar lives on #AUSvSA pic.twitter.com/fy8bI6CAS6

— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) January 7, 2023

“Sorry i think thats out to be fair, hope to see less of these decisions coz that is a fantastic catch,” said one of the fans commenting about the decision, while the other one wrote: “Clearly not out ball has touched the ground.”

Meanwhile, there were some fans who wanted to let the decision slip away from memory. “The legend @bhogleharsha said: you always see what you want to see in these situations, it’s always 50:50. Move on,” a fan wrote.