IPL 2018: Twitter is disgusted by the quality of umpiring

The umpiring standard in the eleventh season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) has been nothing short of abysmal. The Decision Review System (DRS) was previously introduced and teams have successfully resorted to the same as the matches have passed by. Yesterday was another such day when the umpires committed a horrendous blunder.

The incident panned out during the penultimate delivery of the 16th over by Tom Curran to Rohit Sharma in the match between the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and the Mumbai Indians (MI). The umpires signalled a no-ball which baffled both Curran and Dinesh Karthik, the Knights skipper. Karthik had a chat with umpire KN Anantha Padmanabhan and urged for the same to be relooked at.

However, he denied their request and asked them to carry on with the match. Nevertheless, replays showed that Curran’s feet landed way inside the bowling-crease and subsequently, it slid forward and that might have led the umpires to believe it to be a no-ball. Luckily for Curran, Hardik Pandya lost his shape and mistimed the free hit, which could only fetch a solitary run for the team.

The insult to injury for KKR

Previously, Ishan Kishan wrecked havoc in the KKR camp with some lusty blows into the stands and quite expectantly, the swashbuckling knock left their physical and psychological balance in utter shambles. The mistake by the umpire was equivalent to rubbing salt into the wounds of the scar left by Kishan’s belligerence. Mumbai stormed to 210 runs in their 20 overs.

The Knight Riders imploded during their run-chase and were bundled out for 108 runs. Subsequently, they lost their 10th match against Rohit Sharma’s men at the Eden Gardens in 12 attempts. Also, they slumped to their 18th overall defeat in 23 matches against the Indians. Following the error, Twitter was furious and asked the BCCI to take immediate action.

Here are the reactions from fans