Lucky Masood and a Spidercam controversy

Shan Masood had a lot of luck going his way during his fighting half-century against India at the MCG on Sunday and was particularly fortunate when rescued by the Spidercam hovering over the field of play.

After Virat Kohli missed a regulation run out chance to dismiss Masood, the southpaw was caught in the deep by Ashwin, but replays showed the ball had bounced before the Indian spinner collected it in his palms.

Masood got another reprieve off the bowling of Ashwin when, going for the big hit, he was beaten through the air and the ball collided with the cable holding the Spidercam. It could have been an easy catch in the deep by Kohli if the ball had not changed direction after hitting the cable.

The incident once again reignited the debate on the use of Spidercam.

Spidercam is a cable suspended camera system that allows cameras to move both vertically and horizontally over field of play.

The state-of-the-art camera technology has been capturing cricket matches for more than 10 years. It was first used in the rebel Indian Cricket League in 2007 before being used in the 2010 Indian Premier League.

The technology is also used regularly in ICC events.

In the past, the use of the technology has been questioned many times including an India-Australia Test in the 2014-2015 series when then Australian captain Steve Smith missed a catch as a camera cable allegedly came in his line of sight.

Following the match on Sunday, Cricket fans were quick to comment on the issue.

"Just realised, how lucky was Shan Masood yesterday. Survived a runout, Ash miscalculated the catch, spider cam came at his service. Damnn lucky!!" tweeted a fan.

Divine intervention reckoned others.

"It's not the Spidercam it was the Qudrat ka Nizam who saved Shan Masood there," another Twitter user wrote.

Masood ended up 52 off 42 balls that ensured Pakistan posted a fighting total after a shaky start.