Marais Erasmus is a well-known and well-respected cricket umpire. During the first ODI between England and South Africa, the umpire, who is a part of the Apex Cricket Council’s Elite Panel of Umpires, missed a legal delivery.
Erasmus was seen standing at square leg, holding something in his hand, when he inadvertently missed a legal delivery. The 58-year-old had his back to Jason Roy as the Englishman faced a delivery from Anrich Nortje. The incident occurred during the first ball of England’s 24th over. Roy was on strike at Bloemfontein’s Mangaung Oval.
The batsman played a cut off the backfoot as Nortje delivered a full-length ball. At the same time, the cameras captured Erasmus, who turned around to realise he had missed the delivery by accident, only after Roy had already played the shot. A video of the same has gone viral over the internet.
Here is Marais Erasmus’ video
— ?? (@TopEdgeCricket2) January 27, 2023
The incident also sparked a meme frenzy on Twitter, with some fans joking that Erasmus had seen enough ODI cricket and didn’t want to see any more of it. “Erasmus be like: ‘Kuch hoga toh third umpire dekh lega’,” a user wrote. “Was he smoking weed?” questioned another. “Khaini ragad rha tha kya,” wrote a third.
In the meantime, in the first ODI, South Africa won by 27 runs to take a 1-0 lead in the series. The hosts won the toss and chose to bat first, putting up a total of 298/7 on the board thanks to Rassie van der Dussen’s century.
In response, Jos Buttler’s side collapsed for 271 runs, handing the Proteas a well-deserved victory. Apart from Rassie, David Miller scored 53 runs in 56 balls for the Proteas, while Nortje took four wickets. For England, Roy (113 runs in 91 balls) also scored a century, while Dawid Malan (59 runs in 55 balls) scored a half-century. However, this was not enough for the visitors.
Here is how Twitter reacted
How do u get this gold
— Slinger_Tweets (@slinger_tweets) January 27, 2023
Vimal kha rha hoga?
— Rohit Ratnani (@rohit_ratnani) January 28, 2023
When Rajanidanda is more important than your job
— Prasad Rajput (@Prasad__Rajput) January 28, 2023
Nah, only "????" lovers can get this
— H K Harshit (@hkharshit01) January 27, 2023
He’s tweeting ‘it’s about time Roy got some runs’
— AR (@Edge2slip) January 27, 2023
Bakchod Empire of the year …?? pic.twitter.com/r0nBrhXVLu
— Samrat Yadav ?? (@msdhonii_07) January 27, 2023
khaini ragad rha tha kya
— Marwadi (@gaitonde07) January 27, 2023
Erasmus be like: "Kuch hoga toh third umpire dekh lega" ?
— Shubh Aggarwal (@shubh_chintak) January 27, 2023
Oops ?
— Shaileshwar (@TheCricketChap) January 28, 2023
Was he smoking weed?
— Vinod Kumar (@vnodkumar19) January 27, 2023
