Tempers flared during the IPL fixture between Rajasthan Royals and Kolkata Knight Riders after a couple of close calls went against Sanju Samson’s side. It didn’t help that the event transpired in the 19th over, when every run Rajasthan conceded was taking them away from the finishing line.

Asked to bowl the most important over of the game, Prasidh Krishna decided to keep the ball away from the hitting arc. But Kolkata batters understood his plan, and they were shuffling at the crease to alter the line of the ball.

After two singles to start the over, Kolkata needed a boundary to reduce the margin. Rinku Singh took an off-stump guard and flashed hard at the wide yorker but couldn’t connect. Since Rinku hadn’t moved across the crease, the umpire signalled it as wide. 

After conceding a boundary on the next ball, Prasidh pitched it short and wide to Rinku, who shuffled all the way to tramline, but couldn’t manage to get a hit. Since he had waddled way too far from his initial position, Rajsthan felt this should have been a legitimate delivery. But to their surprise, umpire Nitin Pandit deemed it wide. 

Samson was annoyed with this decision and decided to take a review. Sanju knew it very well that there was a daylight difference between bat and ball, and thus the DRS was more of a protest against the dismal umpiring rather than an actual attempt to get a wicket.

Nitish Rana and Rinku Singh scored 17 runs off the over, and won the contest with five balls remaining. For Rajasthan, this was the second successive defeat, but six wins in ten matches meant they are still in the top four.

This is the not first time in the ongoing season a franchise captain has expressed annoyance with the umpire’s decision. A few days ago, Delhi Captain’s skipper Rishabh Pant was fined 100% of his match fee, while the assistant coach Pravin Amre was banned for a game for intruding on the field to protest against an umpiring error.