Hawk-Eye's explanation on Tendulkar's controversial LBW in India vs Pakistan Semifinal

India and Pakistan met each other in the Semifinal of the World Cup. The match was hyped as if it was a war. The fans of both the teams expected nothing less than a win from their teams. Considering the natural rivalry between both the teams, it was expected that some of the fans would see conspiracy theories if their team would lose. Something like that really happened after the match when doubts were raised over the Hawk-Eye decision of ‘Not Out’ when Sachin reviewed an LBW decision against him when he was batting. As Sachin was the high-scorer as well as Man of the Match in that game, it was obvious that the doubts over the Hawk-eye decision became a talking point among fans posing question marks over the credibility of the Hawk Eye Technology.

The controversial Tendulkar LBW:

A day after the match, Saeed Ajmal who was the bowler when Sachin was given LBW and the Hawk Eye overturned that decision a few minutes later, expressed his doubts over the decision. The Pakistan offspinner said that he was still not sure how the Decision Review System (DRS) overturned on-field umpire Ian Gould’s lbw ruling against Sachin Tendulkar during the World Cup semi-final against India in Mohali. Gould had ruled Tendulkar lbw off Ajmal in the 11th over, but the replays showed that the ball pitched in line but according to Hawk Eye the ball was missing leg stump. So the decision was overturned. Ajmal also said, “I don’t know how the television replays showed my delivery turning towards the leg side because I had bowled an arm ball and it went straight”.

The issue didn’t get over with that. Some very interesting videos were posted (by Pakistan cricket fans) on youtube alleging that ICC ‘cheated’ and the Hawk-Eye video was doctored to help Sachin. Here is one of such vidoes. Take a look, it looks quite convincing that the video was manipulated. But wait don’t form any opinion as the last word on this isn’t said yet.

As we said you not to form any opinion before listening the explanation on it. Here is the detailed, scientific and credible explanation by Hawk-Eye.

Hawk-Eye’s Explanation on Sachin’s LBW: Sachin was NOT OUT

This explanation will show that the path Hawk-Eye showed was accurate and the Decision Review System was used correctly to overturn the Umpire’s original decision. Below is an image showing the ball in each frame of video overlaid on the frame of impact:

Image showing the ball in each frame of video overlaid on the frame of impact

The Hawk-Eye track can be super-imposed over these balls, showing that it lines up perfectly with the video:

Image showing Hawk-Eye track can be super-imposed over trajectory of ball and it lines up perfectly

Knowing that the Hawk-Eye track lines up exactly with the real balls from release to the impact point, we can move in our virtual world so that the bounce and impact points are in a straight line, illustrating where we expect the ball to pass the stumps:

The straight, red line is drawn along the edge of the bounce and impact points. There is a small gap between the line and the edge of the stumps, showing that the edge of the ball will just miss leg.The commentators said on air that Tendulkar had been “caught on the crease”. From the front-on angle it does look like Tendulkar has been hit when batting in his crease. However the Hawk-Eye system also captures the run-out angle allowing us to show how far down the wicket Tendulkar was out when struck (almost two metres):

We can also view the track from above to assess the validity of the prediction. Drawing a straight line down the edge of the track we can see that the Hawk-Eye prediction does not deviate in any way after Tendulkar is hit:

Some people think that the ball would have gone on to hit leg stump, some middle and leg. We can super-impose the path that the ball would have to take after the impact point in each of these cases, and compare it with the straight line drawn above. Clearly it is impossible for the ball to deviate in this way and the Hawk-Eye path, which shows the ball missing the leg stump, is correct:

For each ball bowled the Hawk-Eye system outputs a screen-shot showing our raw data. For reviewed LBWs this is sent to the ICC so that there is an independent check verifying the integrity of what is seen on TV for any DRS LBW decision.

After this explanation, it becomes clear that some mischievous Pakistani fan created this video and showed the impact point just one frame earlier than the actual frame in which the ball hit Sachin’s leg. After this unasked for controversy, we can only wish fans must take a game as a game and nothing more than that. Sporting spirit is important not just for the players playing the sports but for the fans too.

[The above explanation is used from the document available on Hawk-Eye's official website]