16th edition of Indian Premier League (IPL) is watching the last over finish almost every day. The latest game between Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK) also went down to the wire with the four-time champions holding their nerves to win the thriller by 8 runs. RCB would have chased down an astonishing 227 if their lower-middle batsmen had not got out in a hurry in the last few overs. In such close matches, one wrong decision can turn the game on its head and it seems that the third umpire missed a huge no-ball call during the match.
Whereas nowadays TV umpires are calling front foot no ball. around this time M S Dhoni was involved in the incident. Left arm spinner in the 15th over of the innings Ravindra Jadeja spun a past Dinesh Karthik Faster and the CSK skipper hits the bails in quick succession. The stumping appeal was only moved upwards when it was discovered that Karthik had frozen feet and third umpire Michael Gough adjudged the batsman not out.
But it seems he missed out on collecting the ball from MS Dhoni. Replays suggested that the CSK skipper collected the ball just short of the stump line. According to the rules, the ball should be collected only after passing the stumps. If this happens then the ball is considered a no ball. However, this did not happen and the drama soon resumed. Not that a no-ball would have made a huge difference to the game, but the pressure on the bowlers to bowl an extra ball would have increased.
Nevertheless, CSK kept their cool to seal the game by just 8 runs and moved up to the second spot on the points table. Meanwhile, Twitter was quick to point out the third umpire’s error and claimed that it was a clear no ball.
Here’s how Twitter reacted: