IPL: Third umpire Krishnamachari Srinivasan fails to spot spike, slammed by pundits
The poor quality of India’s domestic umpires was heavily exposed when an unidentified television official Krishnamachari Srinivasan failed to detect a clear spike on DRS after a batter from Royal challengers in Bangalore, Devdut Padikkal, smuggled Ravi Bishnoi to Punjab Kings captain K.L. Rahul behind the stumps in an IPL match on Sunday.
There were calls for his “sacking” from former cricketers, including Scott Styris and and Kris Srikkanth, who termed the error “unforgivable”.
The incident happened in the eighth over when Padikkal went for a reverse sweep and was caught behind. The on-field umpire KN Ananthapadmanabhan ruled not out and it was referred to the third umpire.
While the snicko showed a clear spike off the gloves, Srinivasan, who looked edgy and under-confident while taking most decisions, to everyone’s surprise ruled it not out as well.
Padikkal was batting on 35 and added five more runs to the total while Punjab lost by six runs.
An angry KL Rahul was seen talking to the umpire about how the spike was overlooked.
It could be said that Srinivasan’s decision could have been instrumental in final outcome and it is to be seen if he gets any other assignment.
“Terrible umpiring, mistakes like that is unforgivable with so much technology and help these days,” Srikkanth tweeted.
“Sack the 3rd umpire immediately. What a joke,” Styris said.
“How was that Not Out??,’ wondered Aakash Chopra.
