ROHIT FINED BUT HARBHAJAN BACKS MUMBAI INDIANS SKIPPER

After a fine 19th over bowled by Rising Pune Supergi ant’s Ben Stokes on Monday night, Mumbai Indians were lef to get 17 runs in six balls in their IPL clash. It was a stiff target, bu by no means impossible, espe cially with a well-set Rohi Sharma at the crease.

When Rohit smashed the sec ond ball for six, the pressure was back on the bowler, Jaydev Unadkat. The left-arm pacer tried to fire the next ball wide o the batsman. It was out of reach for Rohit and when the umpire didn’t call it a wide, the MI skip per walked up to the umpire to contest the call.

Even in these times of ugly face-offs, it is rare for a batsman to walk up to the umpire and ge involved in an argument. The result was Rohit Sharma being fined 50 % of his match fee for dis sent.

Harbhajan Singh defended his captain. “He wanted to check what the actual rule is, where he needs to stand. He didn’t shout a the umpire or ask why it wasn’ given a wide. He was told that the amount he moves is the amoun of margin the bowler gets,” he said.

“I mean ball toh kaafi bahar tha (was quite wide). I don’ really know if it was a wide or not. If both the legs move, then the bowler should get the mar gin. If only one leg moves, like i had happened, then I feel it is a wide. In the end, you have to go with the umpire’s decision.”

Pune’s Ajinkya Rahane backed the umpire’s call, bu declined to get into a debate. “think it was the right call. As a batsman when you move, tha area goes to the bowler. Rohit’s behaviour at that point was nat ural. As a captain, as a player when the game is so close, i comes automatically, nobody thinks these things through and then do them I don’t think it was