Kolkata Knight Riders kept their hopes of qualifying for the IPL 2022 playoffs alive with a 53-run victory over the Mumbai Indians.
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) kept their hopes of qualifying for the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 playoffs alive with a 53-tun victory over Mumbai Indians. Despite a five-wicket spell by pacer Jasprit Bumrah, Mumbai's batting line-up failed to deliver the goods at the DY Patil Stadium on Monday as the Shreyas Iyer-led franchise registered their fifth win of the edition and climbed to the 7th place on the table.
MI captain Rohit Sharma won the toss and elected to bowl first, moments after the team confirmed that star batter Suryakumar Yadav was ruled out of the rest of the season due to a muscle injury in his left forearm. Meanwhile, KKR left fans baffled as they made five changes with players like Ajinkya Rahane, Pat Cummins, Venkatesh Iyer, and Varun Chakravarthy coming back into the playing XI.
For the first time in IPL 2022, the Kolkata-based team registered a 50+ opening partnership with Rahane (25 off 24 balls) and Venkatesh (43 off 24 deliveries) putting up a 60-run stand to give the two-time champions a solid start in the powerplay.
Youngster Kumar Kartikeya brought the Rohit Sharma-led team back in the game with wickets of both the dangerous openers. Leg-spinner dismissed Shreyas Iyer, which helped KKR restrict the run-flow in the middle overs. Pacer Jasprit Bumrah then delivered one of his best spells in T20 cricket as he clinched his maiden five-wicket haul in the shortest format of the game and also produced the 5th-best figures in the history of the T20 league as he finished his spell conceding just 10 runs in four overs.
Chasing 166 for victory, Mumbai Indians' innings got off to a controversial start as their skipper Rohit Sharma was dismissed in the first over after the third umpire overturned the on-field call of caught behind. Despite a gritty half-century from wicketkeeper-batter Ishan Kishan (51 off 43 balls), MI struggled to strike a partnership as they kept losing wickets at regular intervals eventually stumbling to 113 all-out.
Following yet another shock loss, fans of the five-time champions expressed disappointment with most miffed with the third umpire's call to give MI skipper Rohit Sharma out.
It was the last ball of the first over that saw KKR pacer Tim Southee bowl a scrambled seam short of length delivery. The Mumbai Indians captain did not have room to play the delivery and so jumped to defend it to the leg side. However, the ball flew off the thigh pad and Sheldon Jackson took a good low catch diving to the right behind the wickets.
Convinced that there was an edge, Jackson asked captain Shreyas Iyer to review. The replay clearly showed that the spikes were caught before the ball touched the bat and there was one after the ball passed the wood. However, third umpire Bruce Oxenford didn't consider the replay and instead informed on-field umpire Chris Gaffaney to change his decision to out.
A miffed Rohit Sharma walked back, leaving even MI owner Akash Ambani, who was present at the stadium's VIP box, displeased. Here's a look at some of the MI fans' reactions on Twitter:
wrong decision by umpire 😡 was clearly not out pic.twitter.com/cpUcJqcpUJ
— Sports talk With Mayank Shukla (@talk_mayank)There has always been a figure of 36 between Rohit Sharma and the umpire. pic.twitter.com/IyCaNEYUpc
— Dinesh Lilawat (@ImDsL45)A Huge Salute To Umpire From Me 😏😡 | | pic.twitter.com/PGFzeGXbld
— Rohit Fan Zone (@RohitFanZone)Some worst umpire decision can change the whole result of the match, And we have seen a perfect example of this tonight. 💔 pic.twitter.com/pewFRZx15l
— Rohit Sharma Fanclub India (@Imro_fanclub)Umpire during Rohit Sharma dismissal -
Not Out pic.twitter.com/d2clgsFkNq
Third class umpiring continues! There were spikes even before the ball hit the bat still 3rd umpire gives it out to Rohit Sharma!!
Seriously, umpiring standards
Worst decesion by third umpire, Rohit was not out, bad umpiring in this session. Umpire can't check it's catch fair or not,Ban this umpire. https://t.co/t125ol0iqa pic.twitter.com/FIBSKbKfyL
— Sudhir Gautam (@Sudhirgautam05)What's happening ?
Umpireing level is wrost in the this ipl season 💔💔🙏
Pls look at the matter 🙏
We didn't lose to KKR we lost to umpire
IPL pe vrosa tut ja rha hai ab 💔
How can the third umpire not see what we saw? was NOT OUT pic.twitter.com/2IZlchTvmL
— Mayank Pandey 🇮🇳 (@MayankP49946217)Please remove this 3rd umpire Bruce Oxenford. He gave the wrong decision today for Rohit Sharma. His arrogance was palpable in the swiftness with which he took the decision. Very very bad umpiring that too by 3rd umpire.
— Ash_Patni 🇮🇳 (@Ash_2070)This is unfair 3rd umpire also doing like this 😔😔😔 pic.twitter.com/vLnTsoqffl
— NageswaraRaokalasani (@KalasaniNageswa)Umpiring level is worst in this IPL Season. Rohit Sharma was given out for this where there is clear gap between bat and ball.
Rohit was Not Out.
How third umpire not see what we saw?
Worst Umpiring 🤷🏻♂️ pic.twitter.com/xuDdr9DOd8
It is clearly visible in the picture that there is no contact between the bat and the ball, yet it is visible in the ultra edge, this is poor umpiring and it is also a friend of the people working on this technique. pic.twitter.com/spPuEk0pAU
— Dinesh Lilawat (@ImDsL45)Third class umpiring from third umpire pic.twitter.com/jKnnk85SAu
— Subhankar Karmakar (@Subho__Karmakar)Why same mistakes again and again, such kind of umpire must be banned or fined https://t.co/VvPzwR05kD
— Professor (@Professorrajas)Umpire should be banned and fined.
If players get fined then why not f Umpire's. pic.twitter.com/RmpbZTTUe6
MI fans to third umpire on Rohit Sharma dismissal....
.
. pic.twitter.com/8WDVfcQvxt
Third umpire is working from home by the way
— Suthan (@suthan4ever)Hey third umpire this one is for you sunil Shetty is visionery https://t.co/Fkp6sw846z
— crickaddict45 (@crickaddict45)Some worst umpire decision can change the whole result of the match, And we have seen a perfect example of this tonight. 💔 pic.twitter.com/e9S3MYWXXT
— Anubrata Paul(Soldier)🇮🇳🇮🇳🇮🇳🇮🇳 (@AnubrataPaul)Third Umpire or third class umpire. pic.twitter.com/jfMJsI8mQ7
— Norman M Gray (@abbaindia)