Mumbai coach Jayawardene hits out at umpiring howlers
DONE IN Poor umpiring continues to haunt Mumbai Indians as Buttler, skipper Rohit face the brunt
Mumbai Indians coach Mahela Jayawardene made a sarcastic remark as poor umpiring continues to haunt his team in the IPL. Although the Rohit Sharma-led team managed to end up on the winning side against Kolkata Knight Riders at the Wankhede Stadium on Sunday, MI were once again victims of umpiring howlers.
Opener Jos Buttler was again dismissed due to a dubious umpiring decision as the ball was clearly missing the leg stump when Ankit Rajpoot’s fullish delivery made impact on his pads.
MI skipper Rohit too was adjudged legbefore despite a big inside edge. He was reprimanded for showing dissent to the umpires.
MI were victims of umpiring errors in their opening IPL-10 clash against Rising Pune Supergiants as well. The umpire failed to pick the huge inside edge onto Butler’s pads. MI’s Kieron Pollard was lucky to survive a legbefore decision which looked
clearly plumbed off Imran Tahir. In this case, MS Dhoni was reprimanded for showing the DRS sign after the umpire turned down the appeal.
Jayawardene is hoping that the opposition takes MI’s wickets and not the umpires. “It happens. It is not in our control. I don’t think anyone makes those mistakes. But wish for a change that the opposition can take our wickets,” he said in the postmatch ceremony.
The IPL-10 has seen majority of Indian umpires officiating and only a handful of elite international level umpires. In the previous IPL editions, a foreign umpire would officiate with an Indian domestic umpire.
Jayawardene too was concerned regarding the overall umpiring standards in the ongoing IPL so far. “It is the beginning of the IPL. It is not an easy job for the umpires as well. It is a high profile tournament.
“There is a lot of spotlight on everyone - not just the players, coaches, administration, franchisees, but the umpires as well. Yes, it is natural, but let’s hope they (umpires) will be more consistent when we go into the deep end of the tournament and we can try and rectify some of the issues that we have,” Jayawardene said.
Jayawardene said he has seen enough T20 not to be surprised by the manner in which his side pulled off a sensational victory on Sunday. “It’s a funny game. I have seen enough T20 cricket, it happens. A bit of pressure and a few good shots created this opportunity for us,” Jayawardene said. “You always need to have that belief, happy that players had that belief.
“I am pretty pleased and I am glad two young players (Nitish Rana and Hardik Pandya ) carried us through.”