In the space of 10 days, the Wankhede Stadium crowd witnessed its second IPL controversy on Monday. This time it was over the umpire’s decision on wides. On the previous occasion, a storm erupted over the umpire’s decision for not deeming a waist-high full toss a no-ball.
In both instances, Rajasthan Royals were in the middle. Umpire Nitin Pandit was in the firing line after adjudging three tight wides in the penultimate over when KKR’s Nitish Rana and Rinku Singh were facing Prasidh Krishna. The 66-run unbeaten stand between Rana (48 not out) and Rinku (42 not out) helped KKR win by seven wickets to halt their five-match losing streak as they chased down RR’s 152-5 with five balls to spare.
The first wide was ruled on the third ball of the over as Rinku flashed outside off to Krishna’s wide yorker. Since Rinku did not shuffle before the delivery, a wide could be claimed. The umpire’s decision got Krishna worked up and he was seen talking to Pandit for a while.
‘Cheater, cheater’ chants
Chants of ‘cheater, cheater’ were directed towards the umpire from a section of the Wankhede crowd.
Krishna’s fourth ball was signalled wide again, much to the surprise of RR skipper Sanju Samson, who reviewed the decision, probably as a mark of protest. Man-of-the-match Rinku tried to cut a climbing short ball. Samson was seen gesticulating to the umpire that the batsman had shuffled before the delivery was bowled.
The final ball was again signalled wide after Rana moved away from the off-stump to attempt a ramp shot. Krishna pitched the ball even further away, almost outside the pitch, beat Rana’s bat and the batsmen ran a single. Samson and the bowler were agitated and the RR skipper got involved in an animated discussion with the umpire. By now, the Wankhede was buzzing with ‘cheater, cheater’ chants.
RR’s Director of cricket and head coach, Kumar Sangakkara reckoned the umpires should show some consistency while calling wides. “I think consistency is the most important thing in terms of calling wides,” he said in his post-match press conference.
“You can’t create a wide, but you can destroy a wide by moving around the crease. Before the delivery, any movement you make becomes the starting point for the wide line to start moving.
‘Not good enough’
“It is what it is at the end of the day, but at the same time, we have got to realise we didn’t play good enough cricket in the last two games to be on the winning side. In a high-pressure situation, when things go your way or don’t go your way, tempers can get frayed, and agitation comes about, but it’s all in good spirit. We have got to get better as a side,” the Sri Lankan legend added.
These two controversies have given rise to questions as to whether waist-high full tosses and wides should be included in the two reviews that each team get.
