USA’s Rusty Theron accuses Haris Rauf of ball tampering during World Cup game
Haris Rauf was accused of scratching the freshly-changed ball with his fingernail, which was believed to have led to the reverse swing in the 14th over.
Pakistan fast bowler Haris Rauf on Thursday was accused of ball tampering by former South Africa cricketer and member of the USA cricket team Rusty Theron during the T20 World Cup match at the Grand Prairie Stadium in Dallas.
Theron's shocking post came before Pakistan's humiliating loss against the co-hosts in a Group A match that was decided via Super Over.
Pakistan changed the ball before the start of the 13th over with the home team on 94 for one. USA continued their momentum with captain Monank Patel taking in Shaheen Afridi for a four and a six in back-to-back deliveries in the over before Haris dismissed Andries Gous in the first ball of the next over. The delivery showed a hint of reverse swing as the good length ball struck the top of off stump.
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Moments after the dismissal, Theron took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to bring to ICC's attention as he accused Haris of scratching the freshly-changed ball with his fingernail, which he reckoned, led to the reverse swing.
He tweeted: "@ICC are we just going to pretend Pakistan aren't scratching the hell out of this freshly changed ball? Reversing the ball that's just been changed 2 overs ago? You can literally see Harris Rauf running his thumbnail over the ball at the top of his mark. @usacricket #PakvsUSA."
There has been no official statement from ICC on this matter yet.
Despite the wicket and with Naseem Shah and Mohammad Amir bowling perfectly in the death overs, where their strategy was to simply execute yorkers, USA held their nerves in the final over to score 14 runs and hence levelled the score. Haris erred in his execution twice and was punished with a six by Aaron Jones over cow corner and a four from Nitish Kumar in the final ball.
Amir then put on a horror show in Super Over with Pakistan conceding 18 runs, where seven were from extras, which was a result of three wides and some sloppy fielding. Saurabh Netravalkar successfully defended the total while dismissing Iftikhar Ahmed as USA cripted their biggest ever international win in history.
