A high scoring T20 encounter between Karnataka and Hyderabad in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy was marred by a controversy over the addition of two runs to Karnataka’s total at the end of the innings. It was during the 2nd over of the innings that Mehdi Hasan fielding at deep mid-wicket touched the ropes with his feet while fielding the ball. The on-field umpires didn’t check with the 3rd umpire, but replays later showed that he had stepped entirely on to the boundary cushions. A couple of runs were added to Karnataka’s total at the end of the 1st innings which didn’t go down well with Hyderabad skipper Ambati Rayudu.
Following the conclusion of the match, Hyderabad fell two runs short of the opposition total the same number of runs which were added to the Karnataka total. Rayudu and his team didn’t leave the field for a long time asking the umpires to start the super over despite the official result signaling a victory for Karnataka. They stood the ground for a considerable amount of time which delayed the start of the 2nd game between Andhra Pradesh and Kerala and got reduced to a 13 over a side affair.
“There was some confusion in the middle at the start of our innings. What I went and told the umpire was ‘sir you cannot change the score, we are batting for 204 as our target’. That is exactly what I told him and he said ‘we’ll see it at the end, let the match start. The match was stopped for nine minutes, before the second innings. They had no business to stop the match once the target was declared. Then, what we said was we were playing for 204, and that was my exact words,” a highly disappointed Rayudu was quoted as saying by the Cricbuzz.
“At the end, we went and asked to start the Super Over. That is exactly our point of contention. We never even thought of stopping the second match, that has got nothing to do with us. We were insisting that our match was not complete, we still have to play the Super Over. That is exactly why we went to the middle, we were actually going to warm up then.
“I’m sure of the rules. If he had changed immediately then it would have been perfect. Even if somebody gets out and you come inside and see that it’s not out, you don’t call the person back. Even in case of a no-ball not correctly called, you cannot call somebody back or add the scores. I don’t know what has happened but we were playing for 204. That is exactly what I wanted to tell and we were waiting for the Super Over which never happened,” he added.
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