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LAHORE: Pakistan batter Azhar Ali suffered a ‘controversial’ leg before dismissal on the final day of the third Test against Australia, leaving the cricket fans divided and match officials under the spotlight on Friday.

Pakistan are facing an uphill battle against Australia as they are chasing a 351-run target set by the Australians after latter declared for 227-3 in the second innings. At lunch, the Men in Green reached 136 with eight wickets in hand, still needing 215 runs to win the game.

The controversy sparked in the 46th over when Azhar Ali attempted a sweep shot off of Nathan Lyon which seemingly hit his pads but Steve Smith remained confirmed that it clipped Azhar’s bat along the way.

Eventually, Pat Cummins was convinced that a review should be taken. Third umpire Asif Yaqoob assessed the situation and overturned the original not-out decision as the ultra-edge showed the faintest of edges.

The right-hander walked back to the dugout after scoring 17. After Azhar’s dismissal, English commentator Rob Key said that this decision will have a lot of split decisions as an argument for both cases could be made.

Mike Haysman also opened up and stated his opinion: “I don’t think it is conclusive enough and I am not convinced that he was out. There were murmurs before the ball approached the bat as well.”

The fall of Azhar’s wicket has shifted the pressure back on Pakistan as they again have to bat through the day to either save or win the Test match.

Here’s the video of the incident:

The ICC and PCB need to have a look, a few umpires they have on the panel aren’t just up to the mark. The amount of decisions overturned in this series have been appalling. #PAKvAUS pic.twitter.com/Bd1NFEYXqy
— Farid Khan (@_FaridKhan) March 25, 2022