Pakistan has lodged a complaint with the International Cricket Council against umpire Darryl Harper, Pakistani daily The News has reported.

The complaint was against a decision taken by the Australian umpire during Pakistan's third match against Sri Lanka in the recent triangular one-day series.

The team management in its post-match report submitted to match referee Gundappa Viswanath of India complained that Harper had disallowed legitimate four runs, which should have been awarded to the Pakistan team, the newspaper reported.

The incident occurred when Taufeeq Umar played a ball, which was picked up by a fielder who tried to run out non-striker Mohammad Hafeez. The ball, however, deflected off the bat and raced down to the boundary for a four.

Hafeez tried to prompt Taufeeq for a run when the ball went for an overthrow, but the latter stopped him from taking a run.

Under the ICC laws if the ball has not crossed the boundary it is the discretion of the batsmen to take runs off the overthrow or not. But once the ball crosses the boundary line the laws state the umpire should signal a four to be awarded to the strike batsman.

But Harper did not signal for a four and instead was seen reprimanding Hafeez for attempting to take a run from the deflection.

The Pakistan team management has complained that Harper ignored cricket laws by not awarding the runs to the batsman.