India vice-captain Hardik Pandya’s dismissal in the ongoing first ODI against New Zealand in Hyderabad allured severe disapproval from the cricketing fraternity. The fact that even the visiting players were astonished to see the third umpire ruling the decision in their favour aptly summed up the situation.
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It all happened right before the start of the third powerplay when Pandya aimed at playing a late cut off New Zealand all-rounder Daryl Mitchell. With almost no room available to play the shot, Pandya missed the ball completely but a bail fell down as the ball passed the stumps.
With New Zealand captain Tom Latham keeping wickets up to the stumps, the on-field umpire opted to review the decision to check whether the bail was deflected by the ball or Latham’s wicket-keeping gloves.
Third umpire IND vs NZ 1st ODI
The replays confirmed that the ball hadn’t touched the stumps and that the bail had been deflected a tad bit later after Latham slightly touched the same. Having said that, third umpire KN Ananthapadmanabhan thought of the otherwise to rule Pandya out. The decision, however, further upped the confusion among not only fans but former cricketers as well.
Ananthapadmanabhan, 53, had represented Kerala as an all-rounder in over 150 domestic matches across formats during his playing days. As a match official, he is currently officiating his 46th international cricket match.
It is worth mentioning that Latham had erred again with respect to touching the stumps with his gloves as the same was revealed when umpires were checking for a potential hit-wicket dismissal involving batter Shubman Gill (208).
Coming in to bat at No. 6 in the 29th over, Pandya returned the pavilion after scoring 28 (38) with the help of three fours. A well-set Pandya could have proved as a shot in the arm for the Indian innings in the last 10 overs but it wasn’t to be at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Wednesday.
That being said, Gill successfully converting his third ODI century into a maiden double century powered the team to 349/8 in 50 overs after captain Rohit Sharma (34) won the toss and chose to bat.
