‘Furious’ – Ashes controversy erupts as England star Jamie Smith dismissed in contentious circumstances

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England’s hopes of building an impressive target for Australia to chase in Perth in the first Ashes Test were left in tatters after a controversial review.After a decent start from England, they suffered a mini collapse just after lunch, bringing Jamie Smith to the crease.England are trying to build a score they can defend in the second inningsGetty Smith has the ability to counter-attack quickly and looked in decent touch reaching 15 from 25 deliveries when there was a sound as the ball passed his bat from a Brendan Doggett delivery.Travis Head was positioned in a close fielding position and implored stand-in captain Steve Smith to send the decision upstairs for a review.Alex Carey behind wasn’t as convinced that Smith had hit it, and the umpire Nitish Menon was also unmoved.But Smith did decide that it was worth a review and sent the decision upstairs.Sharfuddoula Saikat had a look at all available angles and on snicko there was a spike.Smith, who had looked confident he hadn’t hit it, saw the spike on screen and began walking off.Huge cheers went up from the Australian crowd before Saikat slowed down the replays, and the snicko showed that the noise came when the ball was nowhere near the bat.Smith saw this and returned to the crease.It took five minutes of slow-motion replays before eventually, Saikat told Menon to reverse his decision and indicate that Smith was out.This despite the fact the technology showed that the noise happened after the ball had passed the bat.In fairness to Smith, he had no complaints as he trudged off, tucking his bat under his arm and walking back to the dressing room.However, there were less calm scenes in the stands with members of the Barmy Army left seething with the decision.And on talkSPORT, Jon Norman, Chief Cricket Correspondent, said: “We had a moment in the first innings when Marnus Labuschagne was given not out on review, and when the ball went past the outside of the edge there was a little murmur, and the third umpire decided there wasn’t enough evidence.“Fast forward to today, and Jamie Smith has been given out, and it’s taken the third ump five minutes to make a decision.“When it went up for a review, there is no spike as the ball passes the bat, the noise is about three or four frames after it.“So how the third umpire has decided the noise comes from the ball hitting the bat.“But England and Jamie Smith will be absolutely furious.”There was total confusion around the Smith wicketGettyThe technology clearly showed that the sound happened when the ball was nowhere near the batAnother collapseEngland had Australia down nine wickets after day one of play and quickly wrapped up the last wicket with only nine runs added.This gave the visitors a lead of 40, and though they lost Zak Crawley immediately, they were 65-1.But that quickly became 104-7 as Ollie Pope, Ben Duckett, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes and Smith all went in quick succession.Thankfully, after being brilliant with the ball, Gus Atkinson and Brydon Carse put on a great partnership.The duo added what could prove to be 50 vital runs to the total, with Australia now set to chase 204 for victory in the first Test of The Ashes.England’s Jamie Smith was controversially dismissed