I think the laws are being mis-read on this one. The relevant law;
A catch shall be considered to have been fairly made if
(c) the ball does not touch the ground, even though the hand holding it does so in effecting the catch.
It's not saying that the hand holding the ball can't touch the ground whilst the ball is in hand otherwise every slips catch where the catcher takes the ball two-handed but is touching the ground as it lands in the hand would be not-out too and there are plenty of those. The law allows, for example, for one to take the catch diving and sliding arm-first along the ground. No, I would reckon that if there is finger/hand between the ball and ground when the ball is taken it's a fair catch and from what I saw, Symond's fingers (third and 4th) were under the ball when the catch was taken. I'm sure the ball touched a few blades of grass between his fingers but is that 'grounded'? Don't think so, myself. Fair catch for mine.
Put it this way, if you give that not, there are so many slips, gully and cover catches destined to go the same way so as to make a game farcical.
Unless you have a telescope able to zoom right in, you won't see whether those blades of grass touched the ball. I get the scene in Futurama in my head where the outcome of a horse race is decided by electron microscope and Farnsworth complains "No fair! You changed the outcome by looking at it!" It seems like it's just going to get that ridiculous and even then you won't satisfy everyone.
