SA vs PAK: Sean Pollack criticizes Fakhtar Zaman’s run out in the second ODI for the deception of Quinton de Kock

Former South African captain Sean Pollock said on Wednesday that he believed that South African wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock was guilty of deception to run out Pakistan batsman Fakhar Zaman during the second ODI on Sunday. But Pollak said he believed De Kock was not aware of a law that makes a singular attempt to “distract, deceive or hinder” a batsman.

Speaking in his role as a commentator for Supersport Television in the making of the third and final match at Centurion, Pollak said he believed the incident should have been sent to a third umpire for a decision.

It was on the first ball of the last over that Pakistan needed 31 runs to win. Fakhar hit the ball at long-off and was run out slowing down before completing the second run, as well as signaling to De Kock that a bowler from Aiden Markram should be on the bowler’s target. Fakhar was out for 193 runs.

If the umpires had decided that there was deliberate deception, they could have given Pakistan five penalty runs, which would have kept the touring team on strike with Fakhar with a chance of victory.

Polak said, “When you look at the incident and analyze it, there is a hand up. You can see the batsman and the fact that he laughs later.”

Pollak said, “I’m not saying that if he does that he knows that it was wrong. I don’t think a lot of players know about this rule.” Due to the practice of the fielders, he stopped the ball to prevent the batsmen from taking a second run.

“Given that, it didn’t feel right and I think it was definitely done for the purpose of trying and cheating,” Pollak said.

“If you slow it down, it sounds like he was trying something (but) I don’t think he was trying to cheat.”

Former Pakistan batsman Ramiz Raja said he believed it was a border case.

“There was no conclusive evidence that he was involved in serious mischief,” he said.

Raja joked that he believed that fraud was “part of a wicketkeeper’s DNA”. He recalled an incident in a one-day international against India in 1986 when Indian wicketkeeper Sadanand Vishwanath “tried to believe that he missed the ball and I was run out”.

Raja said that the ultimate responsibility lies with the batsman. He said, “Fakhar was on Fakhar to build his land.”

Promoted

“You feel like a fool,” he said of the Pune incident.

“Not only were the Indian fielders laughing at me, so was Javed Miandad at the end of the non-striker.”