Usman Khawaja, Ricky Ponting question controversial ball-change

Khawaja completed the sequence as Australia’s main batter with 496 runs at 49.60, and whereas he and David Warner have been including 140 for the primary wicket, their pursuit of a stiff 384-run goal gave the impression to be firmly on observe.

The substitute gave the impression to be considerably more durable and newer than the ball that had been used beforehand. England took three early wickets on the fifth morning, with Chris Woakes dismissing Khawaja and Warner in consecutive overs, earlier than Wood had Marnus Labuschagne caught within the slips. Australia then misplaced an extra 5 wickets in fast succession to Moeen Ali and Woakes, earlier than Stuart Broad – nonetheless armed with the substitute ball – sealed victory within the ninety fifth over of the innings.

“We started off really well,” Khawaja stated on the post-match shows. “The big thing was that ball. As soon as they changed that ball, the first over they changed that ball I knew straightaway this ball is very different. I went straight up to Kumar and said ‘how old is this ball you’ve given them because it feels like it’s about eight overs old.’ You could see the writing on both sides and it hit my bat so hard.

“Obviously I bought hit within the head by Woody, and so they modified the ball as a result of they stated it bought broken. But that new ball that got here in, once I hit my bat … I’ve opened in each single innings this Ashes sequence and I have not felt the ball hit my bat as onerous as that ball felt when it hit my bat.

“So I said to the boys even coming into today to be careful, this new ball, it’s going to be tricky. It’s going to be a lot harder than that other ball. Some things you can’t control in this game. It was disappointing for us because I felt like we had a real stranglehold on that game.”

Speaking in the course of the lunch break, Ponting, the previous Australia captain, recommended the umpires had both been “blasé” of their strategy to altering the ball, or had not been given an applicable substitute within the field of balls introduced onto the pitch by the fourth umpire, David Millns.

“The biggest concern I have is the big discrepancy in the condition of the ball that was chosen to replace the one [that had gone out of shape],” Ponting stated on Sky Sports. “There’s no way in the world you can even look at those two balls there and say in any way are they comparable.

“At the tip of the day, if you’ll change the ball, you wish to just remember to get it proper, so [you make it] as shut as you presumably can to the one that you simply’re altering it from. Now when you have a glance in that field, there weren’t too many older-condition balls in there. There have been some older ones that have been picked up, the umpires checked out that and threw them again.

“I just cannot fathom how two international umpires that have done that a lot of times before can get that so wrong. That is a huge moment in this game, potentially a huge moment in the Test match, and something I think actually has to be investigated: whether there was the right condition of balls in the box, or the umpires have just, blasé, picked one out of there that they think will be okay to use.”

Sky confirmed ball-tracking knowledge that recommended the ball had each seamed and swung considerably extra on the fifth morning than on the fourth afternoon, prompting Ponting to name for an investigation.

“The conditions were perfect for bowling this morning, let’s say that,” Ponting stated. “The conditions were better for bowling this morning. But what I saw last night, that ball there, I’ll put my hand up and say I’ve got absolutely no doubt at all that that ball would not have done anywhere near as much as what that one did this morning.

“Double the quantity of motion this morning from yesterday afternoon, seam motion and swing. I believe it is an enormous blunder that must be investigated.”

According to Law 4.5, if the umpires agree that the ball has become “unfit for play by regular use”, they should replace it “with a ball which has had put on comparable with that which the earlier ball had obtained earlier than the necessity for its substitute”.

Marcus Trescothick, England’s assistant coach, said on the second evening that the new ball seemed “only a bit more durable” than the outdated one.

“The boys might sense the ball was making a distinct pontificate the bat,” he said. “Immediately, there is a bit extra life in it. Balls appear to have gone very comfortable, very quick on this recreation – and this sequence. Both captains have tried to alter them on quite a few events.”

Glenn Maxwell, who is part of Australia’s limited-overs set-up, tweeted shortly after the first wicket to fall: “Beware the 2nd newy #ashes”.

An ICC spokesperson instructed ESPNcricinfo: “We don’t touch upon on-field selections. As you’d anticipate, umpiring efficiency is regularly evaluated.”