Headingley was rocked by controversy last night as Freddie Flintoff was denied a second wicket by a TV replay and a furious South Africa dressing room.
Hashim Amla was caught by a diving Michael Vaughan off the bowling of Flintoff, but as the player walked off Proteas skipper Graeme Smith told him to stay put because the replay suggested the ball may have hit the ground.
There was however no doubt about the first referral of the day that had AB de Villiers try to claim a catch at third slip when he had clearly dropped it and was trying to con the umpires.
Amla's situation though was a carbon copy of Kevin Pietersen's 'dismissal' at Lord's when teammates on the balcony told him to stay put against India and he was reprieved in just the same way.
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Vaughan was adamant it was a clean catch as his celebrations showed, but from a certain angle the camera suggests something else and third umpire Richard Kettleborough agreed.
South Africa coach Mickey Arthur said: "AB apologised for his catch, but it is fair to say he took a lot of criticism from the England players at lunchtime for that and from Michael Vaughan himself.
"It is amazing, because there is a lady up there called mother cricket who doesn't sleep and it came back to haunt Michael Vaughan later in the day.
"Ab is a really good, young honest guy and he wouldn't for one minute consider claiming a catch that he didn't think was out. If you look at the replays he thought it had gone from one hand to the other.
"It clearly didn't and it looked pretty ugly on the telly and he felt pretty bad about it. He plays in the right spirit and he immediately apologised to Andrew Strauss."
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07-19-2008, 11:35 AM
Headingley mayhem after catch controversy
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