IPL 2018: Top 5 Umpiring Howlers of the Tournament

May 30, 2018 at 5:14 PM

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IPL 2018: Top 5 Umpiring Howlers of the Tournament

The recently concluded Indian Premier League (IPL) broke all the expectations of fans and supporters, as we witnessed some terrific brand of cricket.

In the end, it was Chennai Super Kings who lifted the IPL title for the 3rd time after beating the Sunrisers Hyderabad in the final of the competition.

All through the tournament, we saw some terrific individual performances. Rishabh Pant was at his sensational best but couldn’t quite help Delhi Daredevils qualify for the playoffs.

Many more youngsters were quite impressive as well. However, amidst all these impressive performances, there were some terrible umpiring howlers on display which marred the tournament quite significantly.

The local umpires were not able to leave up to the standard and ended up giving some shockers.

Now with the tournament done and dusted, let us have a look at top five umpiring howlers

Caught behind of Hardik Pandya

In one of the earlier group matches between Mumbai Indians and the Royal Challengers Bangalore, there was a terrible umpire decision on display which left the RCB skipper Virat Kohli fuming.

It was the penultimate over of the Mumbai Indians innings when the 3rd umpire overturned the on-field decision out.

However, replays showed that the ball had taken the edge of the bat and gone to the keeper. It was the reason behind the animated chat between the umpires and Kohli.

Chris Woakes was bowling the penultimate over when they appealed for a caught behind. The onfield umpire agreed to the IPL and gave it out.

However, Pandya went for the review, and luckily it got overturned by the 3rd umpire without getting any conclusive evidence.

Tom Curran no-ball

It was arguably the worst call in the tournament. The commentators and the players were left shell-shocked when onfield umpire Anantha Padmanabhan gave a no ball to a delivery from Tom Curran.

It was the 2nd leg between the Mumbai Indians and the Kolkata Knight Riders which held at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata.

Replays clearly showed that Curran’s foot was well under the line. Commentators were fuming in the box, and it was indeed a howler.

KKR skipper, Dinesh Karthik and Tom Curran even requested the umpire to review the decision. However, Anantha Padmanabhan was firm in his decision.

“That’s our job buddy, see it and make a call. Horrible umpiring on this occasion and with all the technology in our game these days it should be overturned,” former Australian skipper Michael Clarke tweeted after the match.

Andrew Tye no-ball

Andrew Tye IPL 2018
Photo by: Vipin Pawar / IPL/ SPORTZPICS

In a group match between the Kings XI Punjab and the Kolkata Knight earlier in the tournament, an umpiring howler was again on display.

One of the deliveries bowled by Andrew Tye was adjudged a no-ball. Tye looked perplexed, as he felt he was within the crease. Even the replays showed that Tye’s foot was beyond the line and the call was not the correct one.

He was bowling to Robin Uthappa in the 6th over when the umpire gave the decision. The Punjab players requested for an umpiring review, but the official stood firm in his decision.

Shardul Thakur delivery

This umpiring blunder proved to be the difference in the outcome of the match. The fans and players of Sunrisers Hyderabad were fuming with one decision given by on-field umpire Vineet Kulkarni.

Shardul Thakur was the bowler when Kulkarni didn’t call a no-ball despite the ball being well above the waist. However, it was not adjudged a no-ball.

The decision proved to be critical in the end, as Sunrisers Hyderabad ended up losing by just four runs to the Chennai Super Kings.

It influenced the final result of the game. The square leg-umpire was the one who was responsible for the decision. Meanwhile, it must be noted that Kulkarni was removed from ICC’s Elite Panel of Umpires after his several howlers.

Seven-ball over

Ben Laughlin IPL 2018
Ben Laughlin bowled a seven-ball over against Sunrisers Hyderabad. Image Courtesy: BCCI

A group match between the Sunrisers Hyderabad and the Rajasthan Royals at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket saw a rare howler considering high-level technologies in the modern generation.

We witnessed not six but seven balls getting bowled in the 12th over of Hyderabad’s innings. The umpire in question was an international one though in the form of Nigel Llong.

Ben Laughlin bowled three deliveries to SRH skipper Kane Williamson before delivering four deliveries more to Shikhar Dhawan. It is surely the rarest blunder at the highest level.

TV umpire Nandan wasn’t aware of the occurrence. However, several online scoreboards gave details of the seven balls over.

“This is a rare mistake. Or else an injury break could also see the umpires losing the count. But these are always correct,” a source was quoted as saying by the Times of India.

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