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Umpire makes embarrassing Test history in 'atrocious' Ashes farce

australian associated press

The umpiring farce that was the first Ashes Test sunk to historic new lows on day five at Edgbaston.

Australia's push for victory in the series opener was frustrated by more umpiring howlers from Joel Wilson and Aleem Dar early on Monday.

Wilson gave Joe Root out lbw twice in the opening session of the day, but was forced to overturn both after DRS reviews.

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Root immediately reviewed both decisions and third umpire Chris Gaffaney overturned them.

The first from a James Pattinson delivery showed the ball was sailing down leg side.

The second proved Root had inside edged Peter Siddle's inswinger onto his pads and once again Gaffaney reversed the ruling.

Joel Wilson was forced to overturn eight wrong decisions throughout the first Test. (Photo by Nick Potts/PA Images via Getty Images)
Joel Wilson was forced to overturn eight wrong decisions. (Photo by Nick Potts/PA Images via Getty Images)

It was the eighth time in the match the Trinidadian had one of his decisions overturned - equalling the world record set by India's Sundaram Ravi and Kumar Dharmasena of Sri Lanka.

Dar has also endured a tough time at Edgbaston and Root again rode his luck when it was deemed he was playing a shot when the ball hit his pad despite his bat being behind it - negating any chance to appeal for lbw.

However, it proved to not be too costly when Nathan Lyon had the England skipper caught at bat pad for 28 by Cameron Bancroft.

Wilson avoided setting an unwanted record when Australia challenged a not out decision against Jos Buttler.

But he was rescued when ball tracking footage showed the delivery would have gone over the stumps.

Joel Wilson equalled an unwanted record with eight overturned decisions. Image: ECB
Joel Wilson equalled an unwanted record. Image: ECB

Cricket world fumes

"He's had a difficult game Joel Wilson, a number of errors," said former England skipper Michael Atherton.

"Some have been more forgivable than others.

"The two lbws this morning are poor decisions.

"It's like playing to a certain degree. You feel in form or out of form, or do you lose confidence during a five-day game when the bad decisions start to add up?

"He's only human, so he'd definitely be feeling that."

Dharmasena, who will be the third umpire in the third and fourth Tests and in the middle for the final Test at The Oval, had eight decisions overturned in a match between England and Bangladesh in Chittagong in 2016.

Ravi who was recently replaced by Wilson on the elite panel of ICC umpires, had an equally bad performance in a 2017 Test again featuring Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in Colombo.