DALLAS: Bowler Rusty Theron has accused Pakistani pacer Haris Rauf of ball tampering during Thursday’s T20 World Cup match in Dallas, in which Pakistan faced a shocking to USA in super over.
Theron, previously associated with South Africa’s team, made the allegations on social media platform X, alleging that Rauf was using his thumbnails to manipulate the ball’s condition after two overs.
The 38-year-old seamer, who is not on the USA team, also criticized the ICC for turning a blind eye to the alleged incident.
“@ICC are we just going to pretend Pakistan aren’t scratching the hell out of this freshly changed ball? Reversing the ball that’s just been changed 2 overs ago? You can literally see Harris Rauf running his thumb nail over the ball at the top of his mark,” Theron wrote on ‘X’.
In the Thursday encounter, the co-host USA team narrowly escaped defeat and secured victory in the Super Over. Rauf was Pakistan’s most expensive pacer, leaking 37 runs in four overs.
Pakistan is now preparing to face arch-rival India on Sunday in their second match of the T20 World Cup amidst the controversy.
Following a shocking defeat, Babar told reporters that they failed to execute plan effectively and take wickets early in the USA innings.
“Whenever you come into any tournament, you always do the best preparation,” Babar said.
“But you can say it’s a kind of mindset, when you come up against a team like this, you relax a little. You take things a little lightly.
The defeat adds to Pakistan’s history of losses to lower-ranked teams in major tournaments, including their defeats against Zimbabwe in the 2022 T20 World Cup, Bangladesh in the 1999 World Cup, and Afghanistan in the 2023 50-overs World Cup.
