Umpires thought Amir no-ball was intentional
The two umpires who were officiating in the now-infamous Lord’s Test match between http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 and England have said that they had thought that one of the no-balls bowled by Mohammad Amir was done deliberately.
Tony Hill and Billy Bowden, who officiated the match, said that they thought that it had been done to intimidate the batsman by getting the batsman to hop around with a fast and a short ball thanks to the giant over-stepping.
They were speaking of the short ball that http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Amit-c44003 bowled to Jonathon Trott, which made him hurry his shot but was called a no-ball by the umpires because the bowler had over-stepped by a distance.
This Amir no-ball was one of the three no-balls that are now being investigated by both the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Scotland-c756 Yard and the ICC for being a part of a larger spot-fixing and match-scandal.
Trott was batting on 21 at that time and went on to score 184 in that innings.
New Zealander Hill said while he and his colleague, Bowden did not have any idea about the no-ball being a part of spot-fixing, they did have thoughts about the no-ball being intentional. Hill said, "We never
suspected a thing. There had been the big overstep in particular and in our minds that was more a deliberate overstep to have a go at Trott, who had been batting so well.”
Hill also added that he had had a chat with Bowden after that and thought that it seemed a deliberate no-ball. He said, “But it all seemed to be one of those things that fast bowlers have been known to do
to get an advantage.”
In the 1990s, Curtly Ambrose had used this strategy to intimidate the Australian batsmen in a Perth Test match. Ambrose had bowled huge no-balls which would then rear up from the good length and cause issues
for the batsmen.
Hill also pointed out that while Amir’s no-ball was huge, Mohammad Asif’s overstepping was a minor one. He likened Asif to Glen McGrath who was one of the most accurate bowlers in the history of cricket and
rarely bowled no-balls. Hill said that Asif, much like McGrath, rarely over-stepped and in his case, even a slight over-stepping was a surprise.
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