Jamieson unaware of Phillips’ ‘saliva’ incident

New Zealand fast bowler Kyle Jamieson said he was not aware that his teammate Glenn Phillips applied saliva on the ball, a thing that was banned in the post Covid-19 era.

During the first ball of the 34th over on day three's game of the first cricket Test, Phillips was shown on TV applying saliva on the ball. Phillips appeared to apply saliva on the ball twice before delivering it but on-field umpires Ahsan Raza and Paul Reiffel, however, didn't intervene or take any sort of action at the time.

"The first I heard of it was about 35 seconds ago. So, I have no idea what happened, or when it was, or what was seen. I didn't see it. I'll have to go back and watch the footage," Jamieson said after the third day's play as Bangladesh put them in the driving seat, taking a 205-run lead.

Law 41.3 of the game, updated and put into effect on October 1, 2022, says: "When cricket resumed following the onset of Covid-19, playing conditions were written in most forms of the game stating that applying saliva to the ball was no longer permitted. MCC's research found that this had little or no impact on the amount of swing the bowlers were getting. Players were using sweat to polish the ball, and this was equally effective.

"The new Laws will not permit the use of saliva on the ball, which also removes any grey areas of fielders eating sugary sweets to alter their saliva to apply to the ball. Using saliva will be treated the same way as any other unfair methods of changing the condition of the ball."

When Phillips' incident sparked a discussion, on the field, New Zealand struggled much, largely because of Najmul Hossain Shanto. The Bangladesh captain hit 104 not out and put on two significant partnerships with Mominul Haque (40) and Mushfiqur Rahim (43 not out) to keep the side in a position of winning the game.

To make the matter worse, New Zealand spinners also didn't find any assistance from the pitch like the way Bangladesh got on day two.

"Probably we saw the best state for batting, I thought, across the game. There was no bounce that it had across the first couple of days and it flattened down. There wasn't as much turn, and probably not as much variable bounce. So, yeah, it was definitely, I think, the best state for batting so far during this Test," Jamieson said.

"But we definitely didn't think it was going to be easy to rock up in the second innings and knock them over. So, yeah, we've still got some work to do tomorrow and try and chip out a few more and then there you go, we've got to chase that down."

He believes that a couple of wickets tomorrow would help them to get back into the game.

"Target is to get a couple early tomorrow, if we get a couple early, then we'll go about setting a decent total for our guys to chase."