A contentious call made by TV umpire Krishnamachari Srinivasan saw Royal Challengers Bangalore opener Devdutt Padikkal getting a reprieve when the snickometer showed a clear spike with the ball passing near his gloves during Sunday’s IPL encounter against Punjab Kings.
The incident is from the third ball of the 8th over of the RCB innings, where Padikkal shaped up to play a reverse sweep against a sharp googly from PBKS’ unorthodox wrist-spinner Ravi Bishnoi.
As Padikkal missed his stroke, the ball passed very near the bat and the glove and immediately, the entire Punjab Kings fielding unit erupted in appeal for a caught behind.
But the on-field umpire remained unmoved and declared it ‘not out. Not convinced by that decision, the Kings opted for a DRS review, and this is where the controversy began.
Third umpire Srinivasan checked the legitimacy of the on-field call through multiple closed-in replays, and it seemed evident that the on-field umpire had made an error when the snickometer showed a spike as the ball passed near Padikkal’s gloves.
After an initial murmur on the ultraedge technology, the murmur turned into a decent enough spike when the ball reached Padikkal’s hands.
Learn more 👉 “Not something that I always enjoy”, KL Rahul opens up on playing anchor in struggling PBKS batting unit
At this point in time, in the middle of the replay, Srinivasan was heard saying “looks like disturbance” in reference to the change in spike. It looked imminent that Padikkal would be given out, and PBKS would have the decision in their favour.
However, in a shocking turn of events, Srinivasan looked past the spike and asked on-field umpire KN Anantha Padmanabhan to stay with his decision, which was ‘not out’.
Srinivasan didn’t base his decision on the spike that everyone saw with the likely deflection off the glove, but the lack of spike that was seen one moment after the ball had passed the batter’s hands.
Even Padmanabhan was visibly left surprised that he hadn’t been asked to reverse his decision. And the moment he signalled not out again, PBKS captain KL Rahul and the rest of the fielders couldn’t control their anger.
Usually a calm personality on the field, Rahul was seen having an animated discussion with Padmanabhan, trying to figure out how Padikkal could be given not out despite the spike on the ultraedge.
