‘He changed his mind after seeing MS Dhoni’ – Ian Bishop on Paul Reiffel not giving the wide against SRH

Paul Reiffel, the veteran umpire, was involved in a controversial moment during the match between Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) on Tuesday, October 13 at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium. In the penultimate over of the Orange Army’s run-chase, he refrained from giving a wide when the ball was, palpably, out of the tramline.

Reiffel was about his stretch his arms to signal the ‘wide’, but he didn’t do so. David Warner, the Sunrisers’ skipper, wasn’t happy by any stretch of the imagination and expressed his anguish from the dugout. Adding insult to SRH’s injury, they lost the contest by 20 runs. In the meantime, former West Indies cricketer Ian Bishop had his say on the matter.

Bishop opens up on Paul Reiffel

Bishop, who’s also one of the most popular commentators doing the rounds, believed that Reiffel changed his mind after looking at MS Dhoni, who was, seemingly, unhappy.

“It was a wide, it should have been called a wide. He [umpire Paul Reiffel] started calling a wide. He looked up, he saw Dhoni, and he changed his mind,” Bishop was quoted as saying in ESPNcricinfo.

"It was a wide, it should have been called a wide. He [umpire Paul Reiffel] started calling a wide. He looked up, he saw Dhoni, and he changed his mind." – @irbishi #T20TimeOut pic.twitter.com/1XPaLhV16T

— ESPNcricinfo (@ESPNcricinfo) October 13, 2020

At that point in time, the Sunrisers needed 25 runs off the last 11 balls. Rashid Khan couldn’t connect the wide yorker from Shardul Thakur after which the mini-controversy, surrounding Reiffel, erupted.

However, going by the rules, what umpire Reiffel did was well within his rights. Section 2.12 of the IPL match playing condition says: “Umpire’s decision: An umpire may alter any decision provided that such alteration is made promptly. This apart, an umpire’s decision, once made, is final.”

As far as the game goes, it turned out to be a close affair. After CSK won the toss and elected to bat first, they managed 167 on the board. A couple of 40s from Ambati Rayudu and Shane Watson guided the Yellow Army through to the decent score.

In the run-chase, SRH strained to keep up with the scoring rate. Kane Williamson notched a classy half-century, but his efforts went in vain. Thakur and Dwayne Bravo bowled brilliant 19th and 20th overs to see CSK over the finishing line.