'Disappointing behaviour and lack of leadership around young Rishabh Pant' - Graeme Smith opens up after RR-DC no-ball controversy

Former South African skipper Graeme Smith wasn’t impressed with Rishabh Pant’s leadership approach in the game against Rajasthan Royals over the no-ball controversy. With 24 needed off the last four balls, Rowman Powell hit a waist-high full toss for a six and the Delhi Capitals wanted the delivery to be called a no-ball for height, which the on-field umpires did not agree with. Pant was seen arguing with the fourth umpire on the boundary lines and he signalled to the batters to come back as well.

Pravin Amre had rushed into the ground to have a chat with the on-field umpires and the game had to be halted for a while, which eventually backfired for the Delhi Capitals, who lost the momentum and ended up losing the game by 15 runs. Pant and Amre were fined 100 per cent of their match fees, with the latter facing a one-match ban as well, while Shardul Thakur was handed a 50 per cent fine from his match fees in the wake of the incident.

It was just bad decision making: Graeme Smith

Smith mentioned that the saga around the no-ball helped Obed McCoy settle his nerves, but the former cricketer was quite disappointed with the way Pant handled the situationr. He added that Ricky Ponting was a huge miss in the situation and said that he expected Amre to have come up with a better move.

“Scoring 36 in the final over was always going to require something dramatic. I felt for Obed McCoy and probably the drama saved him a little bit of time to calm himself down. But it was disappointing behaviour and lack of leadership around young Rishabh Pant,” Smith was quoted as saying by Cricket.com.

“Ricky Ponting wasn’t there and it was just bad decision making. Pravin Amre is an experienced guy and should’ve seen it better. There was also a bit of desperation from the Capitals and the fall-out is going to be big from this for them,” he added.