Cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar was furious with the third umpire’s controversial decision in the final over of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 Match 50 between Delhi Capitals (DC) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK) at Dubai International Stadium on Monday.
CSK all-rounder Dwayne Bravo had to defend six runs in the final over, and he started by conceding a couple of runs on the first ball before he delivered one wide outside the off-stump of Shimron Hetmyer.
The ball was so wide that it didn’t even land on the pitch, and MS Dhoni couldn’t even collect the ball. The batsmen ran a quick single as the white leather rolled towards the short third man fielder. The on-field umpire Anil Chaudhary signalled it a No-ball, but seconds later, he had to change his decision to a wide after consulting with the third-umpire.
As per Law 61 (Area of the pitch), if the ball pitches wholly or partially off the pitch before it reaches the line of the striker’s wicket, the umpire has to call it a ‘no-ball’.
Therefore, Gavaskar was unable to understand why the TV umpire decided to call it a ‘wide’ instead of a ‘no-ball’.
“That was clearly a no-ball. We’ve had a couple of decisions from TV umpires, which in these circumstances can make the difference between winning and losing, and that shouldn’t happen,” said Gavaskar on Star Sports after the match.
Fortunately for the Capitals, the decision didn’t affect them as they managed to remain calm and score the remaining runs with two balls to spare to win the game by three wickets. Shikhar Dhawan top-scored with 39 while Hetmyer played the finisher’s role and remained unbeaten on 28.
Gavaskar said it was good that DC eventually registered victory as the umpiring blunder could’ve changed the game.
“These kind of decisions should not change the game. It’s a good thing Delhi won because that could have changed the game,” added Gavaskar.
