Mumbai Indians defeated Royal Challengers Bangalore on Thursday in a highly controversial Indian Premier League match.
Playing at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, the hosts needed 7 runs to win off the last ball. Shivam Dube, playing in just his second IPL match, was on strike and Lasith Malinga had the ball.
Dube needed to hit a six of the last ball to take the match to a super over. But the left-hander managed to hit it just to long-on. He and his partner AB de Villiers, who played a majestic knock of 70 not out off 41, didn’t even care to take a single as Mumbai Indians won the match by six runs.
The only issue was that the last delivery by Malinga was a clear no-ball. Umpire Sundaram Ravi, a member of ICC’s Elite Panel of International Umpires, completely missed it.
RCB captain Virat Kohli soon realised what had happened and was visibly furious. “We are playing at the IPL level and not playing club cricket,” he told Ian Bishop in an on-field interview soon after.
“The umpires should have had their eyes open. That is a ridiculous call at the last ball. If it is a game of margins, I don’t know what is happening. They should have been more sharp and careful out there.”
Twitter, too, was shocked by the umpiring howler, with many past cricketers suggesting a better use of technology to avoid such mistakes.