IPL 2021: Former cricketers Brett Lee and Aakash Chopra reacted to the third umpire’s decision of ruling Shikhar Dhawan not out as he thought the ball touch the ground before Hardik Pandya could pick it up in the DC vs MI match.
Apart from Amit Mishra’s fantastic bowling, Shikhar Dhawan’s patient knock of 45 was also one of the main differences between Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals in the IPL 2021 match on Tuesday in Chennai, which DC won by 6 wickets. Things, however, could have drastically different had the third umpire given Dhawan out in the first over of the DC chase.
Former cricketers Brett Lee and Aakash Chopra reacted to the third umpire’s decision of ruling Dhawan not out as he thought the ball touch the ground before Hardik Pandya could pick it up.
It happened in the first over of DC chase when MI pacer Trent Boult gone one to move away from the left-hander and Dhawan got a leading edge as he closed the face of his bat a bit too early.
Pandya, standing at covers dived forward to hold on to what appeared to be a clean catch. But when the on-field umpires sent it upstairs, the replays showed there was an element of doubt as Pandya did not have his fingers under the ball completely.
“It’s a tough one. If you look at that from different angles, you’ll give different answers. I think it comes down to asking the players as well. You can use technology. You can see Pandya’s fingers underneath the ball but you can also see the ball perhaps touching the surface of the ground. If it touches the ground, it’s not out. It’s a tough one to call,” said Brett Lee on Star Sports.
Former India opener Aakash Chopra highlighted the absence of a ‘soft signal’ – The rule of the on-field umpires sending out a soft signal to the third umpire at the time of referral was done away with in this IPL – which helped the third umpire to come to a conclusion.
“Soft signals have been taken away from IPL this year. There was no soft signal here, otherwise, he could have been out for all we know,” Chopra said.
That event turned out to be an important one as Dhawan, who was batting on 4 at that time, scored a crucial 45 off 42 balls, helping DC chase down the 138-run target with 5 balls and six wickets in hand.
“ (Chennai pitch is) Totally opposite to Wankhede, feeling great to win in Chennai, feels good when you can beat a team like Mumbai Indians, the confidence level will naturally go high. We knew that it would be tough for them when the ball gets wet, the spinners would find it hard, wanted to keep the partnerships going, strung together a good stand with Lalit (Yadav), a bit disappointed at not having finished it off. But glad that we ended up winning the game, the way we played, I think we deserved to win,” said Dhawan after the match.
