Why Yashasvi Jaiswal was given out despite no spike on snicko; controversy explained as India batter argues with umpires

The fourth Test match of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series has been nothing short of a drama, whether in terms of the flow of the game, how wickets fell, the celebrations, or the plot around qualifying for the World Test Championship final. However, irrespective of how the match ends in Melbourne, the chatter, arguably for a long time, will remain around the dismissal of Yashasvi Jaiswal.

The youngster played a crucial role on Monday in the final innings of the match as India sought to chase a mighty 340-run target. After scoring back-to-back fifties in the Test, and stitching a potential match-changing partnership with Rishabh Pant through the final afternoon, Jaiswal looked set to score a well-deserved century, which would have been his second in the series after the thundering 161 in Perth last month.

But Jaiswal's innings came to a controversial end in the final hour on Day 5 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, which left the left-handed furious as he argued with the in-field umpires.

It happened on the penultimate delivery of the 71st over of the innings when Pat Cummins dished out a shorter delivery down the leg side. The field was set for this, and Jaiswal fell for the bait as he went for the pull shot, but instead gloved it behind to wicketkeeper Alex Carey, who dived forward and took it inches above the ground.

The Australians broke into a celebration, having picked the final specialist India batter, which put them on the verge of a win in Melbourne. But on-field umpire Joel Wilson signalled it not out. Cummins immediately opted for a review.

Third umpire Sharfuddoula Ibne Shahid Saikat took a look at the replay from all angles, and was convinced there was a deflection. However, there was no spike on the snicko. At this moment, most umpires tend to rely on the technology and deem it not out, but Saikat trusted visual evidence over snicko and overturned the decision.

Jaiswal was not at all happy with the call after Wilson changed his decision to out. He charged at the umpires and argued, before he was told to walk towards the pavilion.

Why was there no spike on the snicko?

Following the controversial dismissal, Warren Brennan, whose company BBG sports operates Snicko, explained why there was no spike despite a clear sign of deflection.

"That was one of the glance-shots where there isn't any noise so Snicko shows nothing only ambient noise," Brennan told Code Sports. "I checked with the audio director and he said there was no noise either. Probably only Hot Spot could have resolved that one."

Former Test umpire Simon Taufel too sided with third umpire Saikat's call on Jaiswal's dismissal.

"In my view the decision was out. The third umpire did make the correct decision in the end," he told Channel 7.

"With the technology protocols, we do have a hierarchy of redundancy and when the umpire sees a clear deflection off the bat there is no need to go any further and use any other form of technology to prove the case. The clear deflection is conclusive evidence.

"In this particular case what we have seen from the third umpire, is they've used a secondary form of technology, which for whatever reason hasn't shown the same conclusive evidence of audio to back up the clear deflection. In the end the third umpire did the right thing and went back to the clear deflection and overturned the umpire field. So, in my view correct decision made."