Victorious Mumbai skipper Rohit Sharma and losing RCB captain Kohli come down heavily on umps for no-ball error in crucial last-ball finish on Thursday
Royal Challengers Bu00c3u00a2u00c2u0080u00c2u0099lore skipper Virat Kohli during Thursday's IPL match against Mumbai Indians. Pic/AFP
For a change it wasn't just the losing captain making noise about the umpiring after a match had slipped away. Lasith Malinga, coming back to active IPL duty for the first time since May 2017, had clearly overstepped while 'slinging' what turned out to be the final delivery of Thursday night's IPL game between Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers but by the time anyone knew it was a no-ball, the members of the two teams were shaking hands, the vanquished congratulating the victors.
Rohit Sharma
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Seven to win off last ball
Seven runs were required off that final ball, Malinga having begun the over with 17 runs to defend after MI had posted 187-8. AB de Villiers and Shivam Dubey, the lad who had clobbed Malinga for a six off the dramatic over's first ball, were at the crease, and so had the no-ball been spotted by onfield umpire S Ravi rather than the TV cameras later on, RCB could well have pulled off a win or with a boundary, at least taken the game to a Super Over.
"Whatever is not good for the game, I'm not going to stand for it," was MI skipper Rohit Sharma's hard-hitting statement at the post match media interaction. "It's pretty simple, those decisions can cost you games. We prepare too much to win this tournament, to win games, and those kind of mistakes are not acceptable," he added, magnanimously talking mainly of the no-ball that wasn't given against his side but also about the wide given in the penultimate over by the other umpire Nandan, which the MI side clearly believed was an unfair call.
The above video grab shows MI's Lasith Malinga overstepping while bowling the final delivery to RCB's Shivam Dube on Thursday
'This is not club cricket'
Expectedly Virat Kohli was even more incensed. "We are playing at IPL level, not club cricket," he said at the on-field post-match presentation. "That's just a ridiculous call off the last ball. The umpires should have their eyes open, it was a no-ball by an inch. They should have been more sharp and more careful out there," fumed the RCB and India skipper.
Asked if he had a solution for such gaffes not being repeated and if he would like the TV umpire to be constantly on the mike with the on-field umpires to immediately correct such mistakes, Rohit took a step back to reflect. "I seriously don't know what the solution is. The ICC, BCCI, whoever makes these decisions have to take a call on that," he said. "I say it because eventually it's not good for the game," was Rohit's take. The last word has obviously not been said on this.
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