BBL 2020: “Bat hit the ground” – Umpire fails to pick up a huge edge in horror show: WATCH

The Big Bash League 2020 match between Sydney Thunder and Perth Scorchers saw a huge blunder from on-field umpire Simon Lightbody after he failed to pick up a big edge in the second innings of the match.

The BBL 2020 players and commentators couldn’t believe what they just saw and heard from Simon Lightbody.

An umpiring disaster in the BBL 2020 game

The incident occurred at the start of the 5th over of the match, with Andrew Tye bowling to Usman Khawaja. The fast bowler thought he had his man right on the first ball of the over, after Usman Khawaja nicked the ball.

With the huge edge being picked up by the TV cameras as well, all the players were seen celebrating the wicket of Usman Khawaja, with the commentators believing the same.

Fair to say that Andrew Tye was not particularly pleased about this one... #BBL10 https://t.co/9VeqYNsQr7 pic.twitter.com/XsWJ2bVAZh

— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) December 22, 2020

However, on-field umpire Simon Lightbody thought otherwise. He decided that the Sydney Thunder batsman was not-out. With Andrew Tye and the rest of the Perth Scorchers team in disbelief, Lightbody was then heard giving his justification as Tye looked on in shock.

The TV broadcast picked up the unbelievable conversation in which Lightbody claimed the noise was from the bat hitting the ground. Even the commentators couldn’t keep calm as they reacted to the incident, with the replays showing that Usman Khawaja’s bat was nowhere near the ground as the ball made its way past the bat.

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Fans react to BBL 2020 gaffe online

After the umpire’s poor decision, fans and analysts took to Twitter to express their shock. Many questioned why the BBL 2020 doesn’t have any reviews, others labelled Simon Lightbody’s decision as ‘criminal’.

WHAT. A. JOKE. How legit embarrassing for that umpire. And for Khawaja. And the league. Any why does this shit always seems to happen to the Scorchers? #MadeTough #BBL10

— Vanessa (@ten_apples) December 22, 2020

Lol why don’t we have at least one review in BBL? Khawaja is my favourite player in BBL but that’s criminal. Did the umpire forget his glasses or? #BBL10

— Chloe-Amanda Bailey (@ChloeAmandaB) December 22, 2020

Yet others criticised the standard of officiating during BBL 2020, calling the decision the worst in the history of the game. Several fans tweeted that it was embarrassing to see such a poor standard of officiating in today’s times.

The latest incident to come out of BBL 2020 will surely again ignite the debate about the quality of umpiring. Notably, the level of officiating has been a discussion both at the international and the domestic level, particularly with more and more local umpires taking in charge of matches due to COVID-19 enforced restrictions.