The fans witnessed a controversial dismissal during the Tamil Nadu Premier League match between Nellai Royal Kings and IDream Tiruppur Tamizhans on Tuesday at the NPR College Ground, Dindigul. Opting to bowl first, the Tamizhans bundled out the Kings for just 124. Later, they chased down the target in just 18.2 overs with seven wickets in hand. P Bhuvaneswaran was the pick among the bowlers as he took a five-wicket haul and gave his side an upper hand in the game. However, the dismissal of Laxmesha Suryaprakash by Bhuvaneswaran caught everyone's attention.
During the fourth over of the Kings' innings, the ball touched the edge of Suryaprakash's bat and travelled to S Radhakrishnan, who took a catch at the slip. The umpires looked confused and sent the decision to the third umpire, who then reviewed it and gave the decision as out.
It turned out to be a controversial one as despite seeing the replay on the TV, it was not clear whether the catch was taken cleanly or the ball had touched the ground before reaching the fielder's hand. This dismissal was similar to Shubman Gill's controversial wicket on Scott Boland's delivery during the World Test Championship final against Australia. Much like the Gill incident, this decision also went in the bowler's favour.
Gill's dismissal was criticised by several former cricketers like Virender Sehwag, Ravi Shastri, Aakash Chopra and others. The young opener himself took to his Twitter and posted a picture of the catch along with a cryptic caption that included the 'facepalm' emoji. Later, he had to pay a heavy fine for showing dissent at the third umpire's decision.
Talking about the TNPL match, the Kings were bundled out for 124 with Sonu Yadav becoming the run-scorer for the team with 35 runs. Apart from Bhuvaneswaran's five-wicket haul, G Periyaswamy also took two wickets.
Later, the Tamizhans registered a comfortable win as their opening duo of S Radhakrishnan and Tushar Raheja scored 34 and 49 runs respectively. Later, Balchander Anirudh (15*) and Rajendran Vivek (21*) remained unbeaten and took their side across the line.
The Tamizhans will now be squaring off against Ba11sy Trichy for their next clash on Sunday while the Kings will be going up against Salem Spartans on Thursday.