Internet Desk: The IPL match between Sunrisers Hyderabad Vs Mumbai Indians on Wednesday sparked new controversies after an elementary mistake committed by the umpires Nitin Menon and CK Nandan.
The standards of umpiring in the IPL 2017 have gone down to a new low during the game played in the last night in Mumbai.
After poor LBW decisions and disappointing caught behind decisions, the umpires this time forgot to direct who should take the strike.
Sunrisers Captain David Warner faced the first ball of the seventh over even after hitting a boundary off the last ball of the previous over. These mistakes might be common in gully cricket, but in an event like Indian Premier League, this is completely unexpected.
Umpires Nitin Menon & CK Nandan were caught napping as none of them realized that it was Shikhar Dhawan who should have taken strike on the first ball of seventh over and not Warner.
In fact, the Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma also failed to notice the huge mistake.
The umpiring standards have already raised a few serious questions in the current edition of IPL but this was something that is not expected at this level of cricket.
The IPL which has been rich on talent and have been home to top international cricketers has failed to achieve the same standards in terms of umpiring.
This year there are only four umpires who are a full time member of ICC’s elite panel – Chris Gaffaney, Nigel Llong, Marais Erasmus and India’s S Ravi.
The Indian umpires therefore have been entrusted with the huge responsibility of doing the job and by the recent turn of events one cannot be very hopeful about their abilities.
Interestingly, it was umpire Nandan who had given a howler to Rohit Sharma in Mumbai Indians’ previous match against Kolkata Knight Riders the game before.