NASSER HUSSAIN: Steve Smith narrowly escaped a run out, but we can’t blame the third umpire – it was a tough call!

I watch a lot of football and I get absolutely flabbergasted at times by the VAR decisions that are made. Sometimes it feels like the video referees are desperately trying to make sure throw they don’t throw their mates under the bus when they make their decisions.

However, I had a huge amount of sympathy with the third umpire Nitin Menon when he was asked to adjudicate on whether Steve Smith had been run out for 43 shortly after tea.

There were so many things happening in that one moment. Firstly, he obviously knows the laws of the game and so he had to go through several checks.

Did England wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow break the stumps? Yes. Did he break the stumps enough to have both bails out of their grooves? No. Then, when he hits the stumps, does the other bail come out fully and was Smith short of the crease? Or was he over the crease by that time? Which stump had moved? And when?

After about 50 minutes of my Sky Sports colleague Ian Ward analysing it to the nth degree with various camera angles, we finally got to a stage where it looked like it could have been out.

Steve Smith (pictured) narrowly escaped being run out by Jonny Bairstow during the second day of the final Ashes Test

It was a contentious decision and one that has sparked much discussion online, with the third umpire Nitin Menon deciding that Smith was ‘not out’

There was millimetres between Smith’s bat being in the crease as Bairstow crashed the ball into the stumps

The middle stump had gone back and it looked like both spigots of the bail had come out of the groove, which is what has to happen within the law for a run-out to occur.

Remember, that took 50 minutes! And it’s not plausible for a third umpire to have 50 minutes.

So, I think it’s fair enough on this occasion, and there are times when an umpire in that minute or two they have to work with is forced to say ‘I honestly don’t know.’

Sometimes in life there are things that are just not perfect. Not obvious. This was not an obvious error.

The other thing I find interesting is that if Jonny Bairstow hadn’t made the mistake, what would have been the end result? Remember too that Smith’s dive from about three yards out was magnificent.

The other thing people may have overlooked is that the law has changed. In the old days, if your bat crossed the line and bounced up you could still be out.

But that law now states that once you have grounded it beyond the crease you are in.

It is not this kind of decision that frustrates me. The ones that do are when officials can just give themselves 10 seconds longer and come to the right decision.

On commentary, during a Test match between India and England in Chennai two years ago, Mark Butcher called out such an example.

Ajinkya Rahane prodded forward to Jack Leach, and the ball hit something on the way to being caught at short leg.

The umpire Virender Sharma gave it not out on the field and England reviewed, confidently.

The TV umpire Anil Chaudhary examined the footage, and adjudged via Ultra Edge that the ball had missed the bat and flicked the pad, giving it not out.

England, though, were actually claiming a catch off the glove after the ball had flicked the pad and Joe Root made this point to the on-field umpire.

Chaudhary was then asked to review the footage once more and strangely looked for LBW for a ball that had obviously pitched outside leg.

It was England’s substitute fielder George Ealham (second from right) who produced the stunning throw to Bairstow at the crease

Smith (pictured) was subsequently removed for 71 runs, after he hit a top-edge off Christ Woakes

The ball flew high into the air with Bairstow (pictured) back tracking behind the wicket to take the catch and dismiss the former Australia skipper

But he did not appear to consider what the ball had struck last before arriving in the fielder’s hands because he did not take those extra few seconds to run through fully.

England lost their review, and Rahane survived when he should have been out all because the third umpire hadn’t studied the replay to its full extent.

There was one earlier in the series when the ball was hit to the boundary at Headingley and clearly you could see the cushion go back as the fielder, Ben Stokes, slid to stop the ball. It he was clearly four and it was given as two.

I don’t mind on-field umpires getting decisions wrong but with all the technology available and the chance to give themselves those extra few seconds, third umpires should be better placed to get things right. However, on rare occasions like this one we have seen at the Oval, things are not always conclusive.