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Summary
Lord Test umpires Tony Hill and Billy Bowden rejected the spot-fixing allegations. The umpires believe that one of Mohammad Amir's colossal no-balls in the Lord's Test was deliberate, but only as a means to intimidate the batsman Jonathan Trott. Hill said he and his fellow New Zealander Bowden had no inkling about any possible spot-fixing, but the extent of the no-ball raised questions in their minds about whether it was intentional. He further added that Asifs delivery was much less of a concern as he stepped over by only a narrow margin. We never suspected a thing, Hill told the Dominion Post. There had been the big overstep in particular and in our minds that was more a deliberate overstep to have a go at Trott, who had been batting so well. Billy and I chatted about that and thought it seemed deliberate, especially as it was dropped in short. But it all seemed to be one of those things that fast bowlers have been known to do to get an advantage.
